Tag: Transfer

Up, down, in, and out … Babel’s Naomi Shihab Nye

Jared Mobarak

Language has ‘the power to carry us away’. This is what Naomi Shihab Nye said when asked why she was drawn to literature. The daughter of a displaced Palestinian journalist—a theme thus far for the 2011/12 season of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Babel—she has been enamored by language since a very early age living all over the country from St. Louis to Brockport to Texas. A very appreciative woman, she gave thanks and love to Buffalo, her Rochester publishers BOA Editions, Inc., and the Western New Yorkers who bought a…

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The big man with a small voice … Babel’s Chris Abani

Jared Mobarak

Best. Babel. Ever. It’s as simple as that. Of the twelve authors I have seen over the past two years, besides the more superstar names like Michael Ondaatje and Salman Rushdie—easy fodder to gather excitement on my end to read—Chris Abani is the first to invigorate me enough that I literally want to do nothing but finish the book I have been pretending to read the past five months and begin his Graceland. Right from the get-go of his season-ending appearance for Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Babel, I was sold.…

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