On Thursday, Herta Mueller, novelist, poet, and essayist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Romania in 1953 and emigrating to Germany in 1987, Ms Mueller’s experiences of persecution and censorship in her native country fuel her work with stories of dictatorship and brutality. In the Swedish Academy’s announcement of her award, they described her as a writer “who, with the concentration of poetry and frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.”
Get Lit! Programs believes in literature and writing as a vehicle of freedom for all. The more we read, listen, and create works of art, the more our hearts and minds are transformed. I recall hearing a story that the wife of Russian poet, Osip Mandelstam, would memorize his poetry because there were times he was not permitted a pen. The idea of an "inner life" that Mueller speaks of is an idea I think many writers can identify with. Creativity and imagination can never be taken from us, and writing, teaching, creating, and reading are how we share this inner life with the rest of the world.
To celebrate with Herta Mueller, let’s call upon ourselves and others to create, honor, and remember the value of literature in our world, our community, and ourselves. You can even check out Get Lit!’s Literary Events Calendar to find ways to get started.
Excerpt from The Land of Green Plum by Herta Mueller, translated by Michael Hoffman,
Northwestern University Press (1998):
When we don’t speak, said Edgar, we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves.
We had been sitting and staring at the pictures on the floor for too long. My legs had fallen asleep from sitting.
The words in our mouths do as much damage as our feet on the grass. But so do our silences.
Edgar was silent.
To this day, I can’t really picture a grave. Only a belt, a window, a nut, and a rope. To me, each death is like a sack.
Anyone who hears that, said Edgar, is bound to think you’ve lost your mind.
And I then I have the feeling that whenever someone dies he leaves behind a sack of words. And barbers, and nail-clippers—I always think of them, too, since the dead no longer need them. And they don’t ever lose buttons either.
Get Lit! Programs believes in literature and writing as a vehicle of freedom for all. The more we read, listen, and create works of art, the more our hearts and minds are transformed. I recall hearing a story that the wife of Russian poet, Osip Mandelstam, would memorize his poetry because there were times he was not permitted a pen. The idea of an "inner life" that Mueller speaks of is an idea I think many writers can identify with. Creativity and imagination can never be taken from us, and writing, teaching, creating, and reading are how we share this inner life with the rest of the world.
To celebrate with Herta Mueller, let’s call upon ourselves and others to create, honor, and remember the value of literature in our world, our community, and ourselves. You can even check out Get Lit!’s Literary Events Calendar to find ways to get started.
Excerpt from The Land of Green Plum by Herta Mueller, translated by Michael Hoffman,
Northwestern University Press (1998):
When we don’t speak, said Edgar, we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves.
We had been sitting and staring at the pictures on the floor for too long. My legs had fallen asleep from sitting.
The words in our mouths do as much damage as our feet on the grass. But so do our silences.
Edgar was silent.
To this day, I can’t really picture a grave. Only a belt, a window, a nut, and a rope. To me, each death is like a sack.
Anyone who hears that, said Edgar, is bound to think you’ve lost your mind.
And I then I have the feeling that whenever someone dies he leaves behind a sack of words. And barbers, and nail-clippers—I always think of them, too, since the dead no longer need them. And they don’t ever lose buttons either.
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