Shivani Patel

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Shivani Patel is a writer and book reviewer based in Delhi. She writes about books, memories, and the emotional fine print of being human. Her reviews have appeared in Scroll, Feminism in India and The Chakkar. Find her on Instagram @vani_in_wonderland_

Mother Tongue, Mother Rage

Shivani Patel

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Library of Feminist Legacies
Writing Sisterhood
In Translation
Record and Remembering
Women Labour Resistance

Library of Feminist Legacies
Writing Sisterhood
In Translation
Record and Remembering
Women Labour Resistance

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We’re open for pitches and unending constellatio

Thank all you lovers of women’s writing for read

“All translation is an act of mapping wonder.”

$“I wrote this inspired by a real event. I didn’t reject the love back then, but in that moment I was fully aware that the most meaningful love should be confessed in the most meaningful language: the mother tongue I speak English most of the time. My Arabic has grown weaker. I try to write and my language feels fractured. My words fall short. So yes, I wrote this piece in the colonized language too… but it’s also a mockery of myself, and of a force that whitewashes native expressions of love. Writing this and waiting for it to make sense gave me the ick and intimidated me endlessly. To put my whole heart in there, and risk being too vulnerable, too cringe, too much. But that was the point: it made me feel too much. Because it had Arabic. Because it talked about Arabic. Because it showed how much I shamelessly want to feel in Arabic. The whole piece is a question. I keep questioning. Then it ends with a defeated loss; I wrote this poem, still, in English. But at least, I tell the people I love that I love them in Arabic now.” Rawan shared this introduction to her piece and we love the questioning, the honesty of discomfort and the necessity of feeling too much. In what language do you say I love you? Read in full on writingwomen.co as part of the Translation series co-edited with @hemlynr 🌺 . . . . . . . #writingwomen #intranslation #lostintranslation #iloveyouinarabic #loveaslanguage #creativenonfiction #translatinglove #arabicisalovelanguage #feministpoetssinlove #decolonizinglove #mothertongues$

“Translation is seldom innocent. It can mean cho

“What questions must artists and practitioners o