Introducing WLT Book Buzz

Abstract

WORLDLIT.ORG 13 Adnan Mahmutović came to Sweden from Bosnia as a war refugee in the 1990s. He lectures at Stockholm University in literature and creative writing and has published two novels, Thinner Than a Hair and, most recently, At the Feet of Mothers; a shortstory collection, How to Fare Well and Stay Fair; and a volume of literary criticism, Ways of Being Free. times, and most importantly in different states. You can write entire stories just following a peculiar phrase synchronically and diachronically. Like this prayer called the Bosnian prayer, which another friendthrough -words sent me. It is not Bosnian in origin, of course. It started, they say, as poetry in the mind of the great Tagore, probably as fragments, and traveled all the way from Calcutta for a century, over many borders and open landscapes, transformed through different languages, to the pen of a Bosnian translator, and became one of the most cited prayers in all kinds of official and private contexts. The Bosnian prayer jumped into English, and from there it bounced back into the world and impressed people so much they called it by our name. And it is ours. And it is Tagore’s. And it is yours, like all words. At least that’s what the legend says. And so, in the end, if I may think of, or hope for, the future, my idea of an eternal afterlife is not, as in some people’s opinions , a life in a place where everyone speaks one and the same language, some dialect of the protofather Adam, which encompasses all words that capture the essences of all things; instead, it’s an eternity spent learning millions of languages, getting to know each other, trivas for all eternity. Stockholm WLT IS JOINING THE BOOKTUBE WORLD! The show is WLT Book Buzz, hosted by two former interns who now work in children’s book publishing. After watching Laura Hernandez and Bunmi Ishola read more books than anyone else we knew, we convinced them to discuss their reading in a short monthly program. Though not exclusively about children’s and young adult lit, these two voracious readers will cover many children’s and YA books with an international focus that incorporates their (and our) commitment to reading diverse authors. Laura Hernandez lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York. Working in the book-publishing industry has only made her book-hoarding tendencies worse. She takes at least one international trip a year and has visited over twenty different countries so far. But when she’s not reading or traveling, she’s galavanting around New York City in search of foodventures and whimsy. You can find her on Instagram: @laura_louda and @booklynbites. Bunmi Ishola is a former journalist turned middleschool teacher who works in children’s book publishing. She’s constantly guilty of tsundoku , but that hasn’t stopped her from buying more books. She loves to travel and has been to about twenty countries and every continent except Antarctica (she’s saving that for her fortieth birthday!). When she’s not reading, buying books, or traveling, she’s probably watching something on Disney+, HGTV, or Food Network. You can find this former WLT intern on Instagram: @bunmi_ishola. Join Laura and Bunmi on our YouTube channel, worldlittoday, where you can subscribe for free. Introducing WLT Book Buzz by The Editors of WLT a WLT BOOK BUZZ I trust with my life people whom I can ask about the provenance of some strange word around midnight and go to sleep only to find out in the morning they’ve been up all night researching the word. BOOK BUZZ WLT WORLDLIT.ORG 13 ...