alfabet/alphabet

Sadiqa de Meijer

Image | BOOK COVER: talfabet/alphabet by Sadiqa de Meijer

(Palimpsest Press)

alfabet / alphabet is the record of Sadiqa de Meijer's transition from speaking Dutch to English. Exploring questions of identity, landscape, family, and translation, the essays navigate the shifting cultural currents of language by using an eclectic approach to storytelling. As such, fellow linguistic migrants to anglophone Canada will recognize elements of their experience in alfabet / alphabet, while lifelong English speakers will perceive their mother tongue in a new light. (From Palimpsest Press)
alfabet / alphabet won the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction.
de Meijer is a writer who was born in Amsterdam and is currently living in Kingston, Ont. Her other books include the poetry collections Leaving Howe Island and The Outer Wards. She won the 2012 CBC Poetry Prize for Great Aunt Unmarried.