Free Thinking: Language and Belonging

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 598 Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2019

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Preti Taneja talks to the winner of the 2019 Dylan Thomas Prize, Guy Gunaratne, Egyptian graphic novelist Deena Mohamed, poet and broadcaster, Michael Rosen, Iranian-American author Dina Nayeri and Somali-British poet Momtaza Mehri.

Guy Gunaratne's first novel In Our Mad and Furious City imagines events over 48 hours on a London council estate evoking the voices of different residents. It was the winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Jhalak Prize as well as the Authors Club Best First Novel Award in 2019. Deena Mohamed is in the UK to take part in the Bradford Literature Festival https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/ which runs until July 7th and the Shubbak Festival which runs until July 14th https://www.shubbak.co.uk/ You can find our more about her https://deenadraws.art/about Michael Rosen is a writer, broadcaster and Professor of children's literature at Goldsmith's, University of London. https://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/ Dina Nayeri's books are The Ungrateful Refugee and A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea. Momtaza Mehri has been young people's laureate for London, a former winner of the Out-Spoken Page poetry prize. Her poetry chapbook is called sugah. lump. prayer.

You can find Preti Taneja talking to Arundhati Roy and a debate about books in translation here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b5hk01 A Free Thinking programme playlist looking at ideas of Belonging, Home, Borders and National Identity is here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mb66k

Producer: Zahid Warley

Transcript

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0:37.5	Thanks for downloading this episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast, where we look at the
0:42.5	ideas that are shaping the world we live in, bringing together writers, artists and thinkers
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0:50.1	I'm Preeti Teenager, and I'll be back with today's conversation after this short message.
0:56.5	Hello, I'm Jess Gillum. I play the saxophone and I really think you should subscribe to my new podcast, This Classical Life.
1:03.1	If you're like me and always listening to music, this is a great new way of discovering sounds for your playlists.
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1:13.7	Every week I'm joined by a special guest and we share the latest tracks we just can't stop playing.
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1:29.2	Hello, today we're talking language, identity and belonging from the urban streets of
1:33.8	Cairo to inner city London via Iran, Somalia and Oklahoma. I'm joined by five writers working in
1:41.4	forms from graphic novels to poetry and with at least ten languages between us,
1:46.8	including different forms of English. I'm very grateful that we're all here, but before we get
1:52.9	into the political ramifications of that very English sentiment, I'm going to ask my guests
1:58.3	to introduce themselves in their own voices, in their chosen language, and of course, in their own words.
2:05.3	I'm Michael Rosen. I'm a writer, broadcaster and teacher. And my father used to call me a yakhna, a mushugina and a knucker.
	...

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