Alfabet/Alphabet: A Memoir of a First Language is a book written by Canadian poet Sadiqa de Meijer. It is a collection of essays and a record of her transitioning from speaking Dutch to English. The book was published in October 2020 by Palimpsest Press of Windsor, Ontario, and won the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language non-fiction.
Synopsis
de Meijer's alfabet/alphabet chronicles her transition from speaking Dutch, her mother tongue, to English, her adopted tongue. By taking an eclectic approach to narrative, she examines the shifting cultural currents of language by exploring topics of identity, geography, family, and translation. As a result, alfabet/alphabet identifies components of fellow linguistic migrants' experiences, while leaving lifelong English speakers with a different perspective of their mother tongue.
Awards
alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language non-fiction[1] at the 2021 Governor General's Awards.[2]
Reception
alfabet/alphabet was generally well received. Cara Nelissen at the Literary Review of Canada comments, "de Meijer weaves little gems throughout alfabet/alphabet, including a four-page list of what English-speakers think Dutch sounds like".[3] At Goodreads, Susan Gillis finds it, "An important book that expands the genre of memoir and deserves to be widely read and shared." and adds, "Brilliant, insightful writing that's warm and generous".[4] Joanne Booy-De Moor at The Banner writes, "This slim volume is academically rigorous and poetically playful as she explores questions of identity, landscape, and family".[5]
References
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| 1930s |
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| 1940s |
- J. F. C. Wright, Slava Bohu (1940)
- Emily Carr, Klee Wyck (1941)
- Bruce Hutchison, The Unknown Country (1942)
- Edgar McInnis, The Unguarded Frontier (1942)
- E. K. Brown, On Canadian Poetry (1943)
- John Robins, The Incomplete Anglers (1943)
- Dorothy Duncan, Partner in Three Worlds (1944)
- Edgar McInnis, The War: Fourth Year (1944)
- Ross Munro, Gauntlet to Overlord (1945)
- Evelyn M. Richardson, We Keep a Light (1945)
- Frederick Phillip Grove, In Search of Myself (1946)
- Arthur R. M. Lower, Colony to Nation (1946)
- William Sclater, Haida (1947)
- Robert MacGregor Dawson, The Government of Canada (1947)
- Thomas Head Raddall, Halifax, Warden of the North (1948)
- C. P. Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939-1945 (1948)
- Hugh MacLennan, Cross-country (1949)
- Robert MacGregor Dawson, Democratic Government in Canada (1949)
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| 1950s |
- Marjorie Wilkins Campbell, The Saskatchewan (1950)
- W. L. Morton, The Progressive Party in Canada (1950)
- Frank MacKinnon, The Progressive Party in Canada (1951)
- Josephine Phelan, The Ardent Exile (1951)
- Donald G. Creighton, John A. Macdonald, The Young Politician (1952)
- Bruce Hutchison, The Incredible Canadian (1952)
- J. M. S. Careless, Canada, A Story of Challenge (1953)
- N. J. Berrill, Sex and the Nature of Things (1953)
- Hugh MacLennan, Thirty and Three (1954)
- Arthur R. M. Lower, This Most Famous Stream (1954)
- N. J. Berrill, Man's Emerging Mind (1955)
- Donald G. Creighton, John A. Macdonald, The Old Chieftain (1955)
- Pierre Berton, The Mysterious North (1956)
- Joseph Lister Rutledge, Century of Conflict (1956)
- Thomas H. Raddall, The Path of Destiny (1957)
- Bruce Hutchison, Canada: Tomorrow's Giant (1957)
- Pierre Berton, Klondike (1958)
- Joyce Hemlow, The History of Fanny Burney (1958)
- [No award] (1959)
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| 1960s |
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| 1970s |
- [No award] (1970)
- Pierre Berton, The Last Spike (1971)
- [No award] (1972)
- Michael Bell, Painters in a New Land (1973)
- Charles Ritchie, The Siren Years (1974)
- Marion MacRae and Anthony Adamson, Hallowed Walls (1975)
- Carl Berger, The Writing of Canadian History (1976)
- F. R. Scott, Essays on the Constitution (1977)
- Roger Caron, Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars (1978)
- Maria Tippett, Emily Carr (1979)
- Robert Bothwell and William Kilbourn, C.D. Howe (1979)
- Larry Pratt and John Richards, Prairie Capitalism (1979)
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| 1980s |
- Jeffrey Simpson, Discipline of Power: The Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration (1980)
- George Calef, Caribou and the Barren-Land (1981)
- Christopher Moore, Louisbourg Portraits: Life in an Eighteenth- Century Garrison Town (1982)
- Jeffery Williams, Byng of Vimy: General and Governor General (1983)
- Sandra Gwyn, The Private Capital: Ambition and Love in the Age of Macdonald and Laurier (1984)
- Ramsay Cook, The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada (1985)
- Northrop Frye, Northrop Frye on Shakespeare (1986)
- Michael Ignatieff, The Russian Album (1987)
- Anne Collins, In the Sleep Room (1988)
- Robert Calder, Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham (1989)
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| 1990s |
- Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall, Trudeau and Our Times (1990)
- Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past (1991)
- Maggie Siggins, Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm (1992)
- Karen Connelly, Touch the Dragon (1993)
- John Livingston, Rogue Primate: An Exploration of Human Domestication (1994)
- Rosemary Sullivan, Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen (1995)
- John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization (1996)
- Rachel Manley, Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood (1997)
- David Adams Richards, Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi (1998)
- Marq de Villiers, Water (1999)
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| 2000s |
- Nega Mezlekia, Notes from the Hyena's Belly (2000)
- Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Ingenuity Gap (2001)
- Andrew Nikiforuk, Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil (2002)
- Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (2003)
- Roméo Dallaire, Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2004)
- John Vaillant, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed (2005)
- Ross King, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism (2006)
- Karolyn Smardz Frost, I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad (2007)
- Christie Blatchford, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army (2008)
- M. G. Vassanji, A Place Within: Rediscovering India (2009)
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| 2010s |
- Allan Casey, Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada (2010)
- Charles Foran, Mordecai: The Life and Times (2011)
- Ross King, Leonardo and the Last Supper (2012)
- Sandra Djwa, Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page (2013)
- Michael John Harris, The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection (2014)
- Mark L. Winston, Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive (2015)
- Bill Waiser, A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905 (2016)
- Graeme Wood, The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State (2017)
- Darrel J. McLeod, Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age' (2018)
- Don Gillmor, To the River: Losing My Brother (2019)
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| 2020s |
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