What is your nationality and one of your nations writers??

Good question :) We were taught elementary ancient greek in highschool, for two years, but the answer is definitely that now i cannot read the Odyssey from the original. In fact i cannot read anything older than Koine Greek. The rather basic Koine of the New Testament is easy to read for anyone who knows (modern) Greek, but most of the ancient texts are not.

But they are still part of Greek literature, in fact most of it that is great belongs still to that era :)

I'm American, and we also have some great poets, including Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, T. S. Eliot, and one of my favorites, Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Originally Posted by qimissung

I'm American, and we also have some great poets, including Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, T. S. Eliot, and one of my favorites, Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Hey, T S Eliot became a British citizen and died here. Sylvia Plath also died here (but you can have her). Then again, W H Auden moved to the USA and became an American citizen. Tell you what...you can have Auden if we can have Eliot. Deal? :wink5:

I'm from New Zealand. My absolute favourite author from home is Maurice Gee. I also think Kathrine Mansfield is superb, and Janet Frame is wonderful.

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Originally Posted by WICKES

Hey, T S Eliot became a British citizen and died here. Sylvia Plath also died here (but you can have her). Then again, W H Auden moved to the USA and became an American citizen. Tell you what...you can have Auden if we can have Eliot. Deal? :wink5:

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Deal. :wink5: I knew Eliot lived for most of his adult life in England, but he was born in the states, so I decided to include him. I didn't know that about Auden (whom I do like), but Kipling also lived for a number of years here, and I wondered that about him-do the British get to claim him, or do we?

'Classics'
Herman Charles Bosman (Short Stories)
J.M. Coetzee
Athol Fugard (Plays mostly)
Nadine Gordimer
Alan Paton
Olive Schreiner

and then...
Deon Meyer - on the Crime/Thirller fiction scene and, most recently, won a Barry Award for Best Thriller (USA) in 2011.
Wilbur Smith - born in Zambia, but lived in South Africa for most of his life. His novels are mostly based in Southern Africa.
Bryce Courtenay - now a naturalized Australian.

and lastly...
JRR Tolkien - he was born here and that's about it.

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Originally Posted by qimissung

Deal. :wink5: I knew Eliot lived for most of his adult life in England, but he was born in the states, so I decided to include him. I didn't know that about Auden (whom I do like), but Kipling also lived for a number of years here, and I wondered that about him-do the British get to claim him, or do we?

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Actually, I'd say T.S Eliot was an anglo-American. Auden wasn't, he was just an Englishman who emigrated to America. Plath wasn't. She was an American living in Britain. But I'd say Winston Churchill was an 'anglo-American'. Christopher Hitchens identified himself as an 'anglo- American' as well. He seemed to mean that there is such a thing as an anglo-American personality type or temprement- someone torn between both cultures and not quite at home in either; people who belong in the middle of the Atlantic perhaps!

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Originally Posted by TurquoiseSunset

'Classics'
Herman Charles Bosman (Short Stories)
J.M. Coetzee
Athol Fugard (Plays mostly)
Nadine Gordimer
Alan Paton
Olive Schreiner

and then...
Deon Meyer - on the Crime/Thirller fiction scene and, most recently, won a Barry Award for Best Thriller (USA) in 2011.
Wilbur Smith - born in Zambia, but lived in South Africa for most of his life. His novels are mostly based in Southern Africa.
Bryce Courtenay - now a naturalized Australian.

and lastly...
JRR Tolkien - he was born here and that's about it.

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You forgot Laurens Van Der Post.

I think it would be a stretch to claim Tolkein as a South African writer. His parents were English and were temporarily living in South Africa while his father worked for a British bank there. Tolkein left when he was just 3 and spent the rest of his life in England, where he died. The Lord of the Rings are deeply English: the shire is an idealized vision of a rural English village and the hobbits are based on the young English boys from the English countryside who Tolkein commanded as a British officer during WW1.

Strindberg

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Originally Posted by WICKES

You forgot Laurens Van Der Post.

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Oh, and last, but not least, Laurens van der Post, who is hardly ever mentioned in South Africa, I find.

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Originally Posted by WICKES

I think it would be a stretch to claim Tolkein as a South African writer.

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Exactly, and that's why I added the "and that's about it" part. He was really only born here, although he does feature on some lists of South African writers; I personally don't see him as one.

Hmmm...

Rabindranath Tagore--one of the greatest Eastern poets ever.

Sarat Chandra Chatterjee--a brilliant author who deserves a wider audience

and in the moderns:

Vikram Seth--A fine writer; too bad we lost him to the US.

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Originally Posted by AjaxAscendant

Hmmm...

Rabindranath Tagore--one of the greatest Eastern poets ever.

Sarat Chandra Chatterjee--a brilliant author who deserves a wider audience

and in the moderns:

Vikram Seth--A fine writer; too bad we lost him to the US.

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Isn't Salman Rushdie Indian as well?

I am Algerian, A very multicultural nation, unfortunately all the world knows about it is that it had a long history with violence. Now I feel Like Papa Monzano in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. Algerian Literature is written in three languages, French, Arabic and Amazigh. My username, Tellem Chaho is an Amazigh word which means Once Upon a Time. I cannot speak this language but I am trying to learn it. In case you're wondering where this country is situatiod, it is the lagre part which never bares a name in tourist maps between Tunisia and Morocco. Of our literary men I would mention AHlem Mosteghanemi for Arabic literature and Mohamed Dib and Malek Haddad for French litreature. These men have already been postmodernist back in the early 60s although they barely had the right for schooling. I guess colonialism has one good side, is that it gives incentive to the victim to bring more. This country today is no longer related to violence as it used to 12 years ago.

Salman Rushdie is Half Indian Half Pakistani and kind of British

i'm Italian. Many people think that The itlain literature is great and complex. I don't agree at all. I never thought that it was brilliant because i don't think there are such good, brilliant and extremely fascinating works as abroad . You know, Italiaans have Dante, Pirandello maybe Alfieri but here, no writer has a complicated way of writing as the Anglo-amenicans. There are my favourites, even if i love also the French and german ones. I'd like knowing th russian ones much better. i'm not interested in the italian literature above all because i never found what i was looking for in a very good book . Please, if you don't agree with me, explain me why, so i can grow :)) love :)

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Originally Posted by ilovelordbyron

i'm Italian. Many people think that The itlain literature is great and complex. I don't agree at all. I never thought that it was brilliant because i don't think there are such good, brilliant and extremely fascinating works as abroad . You know, Italiaans have Dante, Pirandello maybe Alfieri but here, no writer has a complicated way of writing as the Anglo-amenicans. There are my favourites, even if i love also the French and german ones. I'd like knowing th russian ones much better. i'm not interested in the italian literature above all because i never found what i was looking for in a very good book . Please, if you don't agree with me, explain me why, so i can grow :)) love :)

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Scusa, ma ti dimentici D'Annunzio, Calvino, Leopardi, Foscolo e Manzini

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Originally Posted by Alexander III

Scusa, ma ti dimentici D'Annunzio, Calvino, Leopardi, Foscolo e Manzini

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I saw you mention how little read D'Annunzio is outside of Italy earlier in the thread. I read half a dozen of his novels last year, as well as some short stories and poetry, and thought they were all remarkable, if a little unsettling and at times seemingly lacking in humanity. His characters are rarely sympathetic. Do you think that this is why he's little read outside of Italy, or is it more his place in history overshadowing his place in literature? Is he widely read in Italy?

I'm probably the only Indonesian here and the most famous literary author we have is Chairil Anwar. Hís novel "Aku" ("I") is really famous, however most people in our country have no sense of literature these days. I think the arts used to be so great, but now the people are generally ignorant of these kinds of things.

In Italy, people don't use to read D' Annunzio because they don't appreciate him as a man. i want to be clearer. He wasn't a common man. He always tried to be a part from society, he wanted to be a symbol for everyone,he wanted to be a "Superuomo" (Nietsche's Über Men). Unfortunately, italians sometimes judge a writer knowing just his personal life, forgetting that art is a part from everything. As Wilde sayd "it's not a moral or immoral book. it's well or badly written. That's all". So they should be concentrated only on his works.

I would think Manzoni would still be the Italian novelist. I mean, there seem to be only two acknowledged books by the general readership, Comedia, and I Promessi Sposi

I'm a mix-breed - born in Sweden, of polish descent, and have been residing in Israel for the second half of my life.

Lagerkvist for Sweden, Szymborska for Poland, Grossman for Israel.

i'm a Filipino

these are just few of the best writers in the Philippines: jose rizal, nick joaquin, lualhati bautista and f.sionil jose

I am from Turkey. My favorite Turkish writer is Farabi and Ibn-i Sina .They are both philosophers especially İbn-i Sina who is the leader of the medicine.He has lot's of invents about medicine. He make the first surgeries of eye and brain.

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Originally Posted by Can

I am from Turkey. My favorite Turkish writer is Farabi and Ibn-i Sina .They are both philosophers especially İbn-i Sina who is the leader of the medicine.He has lot's of invents about medicine. He make the first surgeries of eye and brain.

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Europan literal and philosophical studies are inspired by some Turkish philosophers.

I think of myself as Scottish rather than British so that rules out Philip Larkin, I'm afraid.
My favourite Scottish writer would be Iain Crichton Smith who wrote in English and Gaelic so beautifully. Cannae resist giving you an example:

TWO GIRLS SINGING


It neither was the words nor yet the tune
Any tune would have done and any words.
Any listener at all.

As nightingales in rocks or a child crooning
in its own world of strange awakening
or larks for no reason but themselves.

So on the bus through late November running
by yellow lights tormented, darkness falling,
the two girls sang for miles and miles together

and it wasn't the words or the tune. It was the singing.
It was the human sweetness in that yellow,
the unpredicted voices of our kind.

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Originally Posted by hallaig

I think of myself as Scottish rather than British so that rules out Philip Larkin, I'm afraid.
My favourite Scottish writer would be Iain Crichton Smith who wrote in English and Gaelic so beautifully. Cannae resist giving you an example:

TWO GIRLS SINGING


It neither was the words nor yet the tune
Any tune would have done and any words.
Any listener at all.

As nightingales in rocks or a child crooning
in its own world of strange awakening
or larks for no reason but themselves.

So on the bus through late November running
by yellow lights tormented, darkness falling,
the two girls sang for miles and miles together

and it wasn't the words or the tune. It was the singing.
It was the human sweetness in that yellow,
the unpredicted voices of our kind.

---

coool

Nationality: American
Good writers from America: Thoreau, Emerson, Poe, Hawthorne, Irving. I really only know of the classic American authors since that's the majority of what I read for school purposes. Being in school for English doesn't leave any time for reading anything else. There's a lot of wonderful authors from America.

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Originally Posted by hallaig

I think of myself as Scottish rather than British so that rules out Philip Larkin, I'm afraid.
My favourite Scottish writer would be Iain Crichton Smith who wrote in English and Gaelic so beautifully. Cannae resist giving you an example:

TWO GIRLS SINGING


It neither was the words nor yet the tune
Any tune would have done and any words.
Any listener at all.

As nightingales in rocks or a child crooning
in its own world of strange awakening
or larks for no reason but themselves.

So on the bus through late November running
by yellow lights tormented, darkness falling,
the two girls sang for miles and miles together

and it wasn't the words or the tune. It was the singing.
It was the human sweetness in that yellow,
the unpredicted voices of our kind.

---

That's great to know and I will definitely be checking out this author. I'm Scottish and Irish by heritage only (not nationality) so it would be nice to read some works from authors from my "motherlands".

I know it's cliche but don't forget about Robbie Burns! :) Everyone thinks of him when they think of Scottish writers ;)

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Originally Posted by Pensive

Pakistan has produced some really great writers which makes it quite difficult to make a choice. Unfortunately many of them stand quite unknown to the world especially when it come to prose. Writers like Saadat Hassan manto, a short story writer basically and novelists like Altaf Fatima and Khadija Mastoor. And then there are wonderful poets like Faiz Ahmed Faiz (a revolutionary writer) and Sahir Ludhianwi. But since I must narrow down to one writer, I think it will have to be the renowned national hero Allama Iqbal who played an important role as a revolutionary poet as well as an essay-writer, economist and political leader.

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My fiance is from Lahore and adores Iqbal. When my Urdu skills become advanced enough, I would love to read some of his work.

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Originally Posted by PMLondonderry

That's great to know and I will definitely be checking out this author. I'm Scottish and Irish by heritage only (not nationality) so it would be nice to read some works from authors from my "motherlands".

I know it's cliche but don't forget about Robbie Burns! :) Everyone thinks of him when they think of Scottish writers ;)

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Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson are popular too.

I'm Irish and there are the writers you all know - Yeats, Heaney, Joyce, Beckett, Stoker. There are more that I enjoy - John Montague, Patrick Kavanagh (poets), Colm Toibin, Sheridan Le Fanu, John Banville, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor (novelists), Brian Friel (playwright).

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Originally Posted by PMLondonderry

My fiance is from Lahore and adores Iqbal. When my Urdu skills become advanced enough, I would love to read some of his work.

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Lahore is my favorite place in the entire world! :) (but then again I haven't been to many places :p). BTW wish you all the best with learning Urdu! :) I would personally suggest you to start with Iqbal's Baang-e-dara which even though originally meant as a collection of children literature, explores deeper themes within and is very entertaining! :)

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Originally Posted by Pensive

Lahore is my favorite place in the entire world! :) (but then again I haven't been to many places :p). BTW wish you all the best with learning Urdu! :) I would personally suggest you to start with Iqbal's Baang-e-dara which even though originally meant as a collection of children literature, explores deeper themes within and is very entertaining! :)

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That's not a bad idea to start with books for children. Luckily, my university offers Urdu so I've been taking it as my second language for awhile now.

The funny part was last semester when I tried to get my fiance to practice with me and I would set up a scenario (like asking about families) and I would tell him to ask me simple questions along the lines of "how many brothers do you have?", "What is your brothers name?", "Do you have a sister?" and he would go on tangents like "And what does your brother do for a living? Where did he grow up and where did he go to school?" We'd get about 2 questions in and I'd have to stop him and yell "we didn't learn that yet! Stick to the script!" :lol:

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Originally Posted by PMLondonderry

That's not a bad idea to start with books for children. Luckily, my university offers Urdu so I've been taking it as my second language for awhile now.

The funny part was last semester when I tried to get my fiance to practice with me and I would set up a scenario (like asking about families) and I would tell him to ask me simple questions along the lines of "how many brothers do you have?", "What is your brothers name?", "Do you have a sister?" and he would go on tangents like "And what does your brother do for a living? Where did he grow up and where did he go to school?" We'd get about 2 questions in and I'd have to stop him and yell "we didn't learn that yet! Stick to the script!" :lol:

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:D

Well language-learning always takes some time, especially a language like Urdu which is quite different from English (I am assuming English is your first language?) Especially the writing part which uses Arabic script (which is really complex) and is pretty hard to master for even the native speakers.

lekin mujhe umeed hai aap zaroor kaamyaab hongi! :)

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Originally Posted by Pensive

:D

Well language-learning always takes some time, especially a language like Urdu which is quite different from English (I am assuming English is your first language?) Especially the writing part which uses Arabic script (which is really complex) and is pretty hard to master for even the native speakers.

lekin mujhe umeed hai aap zaroor kaamyaab hongi! :)

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I havent had an issue with the reading since I have been around Arabic for a long time. Being Muslim, I had to learn the Arabic script to read Qur'an. Plus, I lived with Saudis for a year so that helped a bit.

And yeah, sometimes Urdu can be hard to remember since it isn't Latin or Germanic based the way English is. However, being around Urdu speakers and Arabic speakers really made it a lot easier on me, alhamdulillah.

You want a hard language to learn, try learning Gaelic. That's the language of my "motherlands" so I really wanted to learn it in high school and it was probably the hardest language I've ever attempted. It comes from the Celtic language family and not the Germanic (English) so the words and spellings are way off from English spellings. There are insane letter combinations that make sounds that you would never think they would make. For examble, "mh" and "bh" both make a V sound, "th" can be silent, "es" can be silent....so then you get words like "Ciamhes" (a name) which is pronounced "keeva"... lol. It's just a big huge mess. Or words like Oichdhe (night) which is pronounced oi-kh-uh. lol.

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Originally Posted by OrphanPip

Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson are popular too.

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Love Stevenson, Scott great story teller but not very fashionable today.
Modern poets- Crichton Smith, Norman MacCaig:



Praise of a collie - Norman MacCaig

She was a small dog, neat and fluid –
Even her conversation was tiny:
She greeted you with bow, never bow-wow.

Her sons stood monumentally over her
But did what she told them. Each grew grizzled
Till he seemed he was his own mother’s grandfather.

Once, gathering sheep on a showery day,
I remarked how dry she was. Pollóchan said ‘Ah,
It would take a very accurate drop to hit Lassie.’

She sailed in the dinghy like a proper sea-dog.
Where’s a burn? – she’s first on the other side.
She flowed through fences like a piece of black wind.

But suddenly she was old and sick and crippled . . .
I grieved for Pollóchan when he took her a stroll
And put his gun to the back of her head.

Uruguay, and I like many tales of Horacio Quiroga. His Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte are very recommendable.

netherlands ancestry..anne frank..that nils kid who is tiny and rides on geese...i havent really looked into it. I grew up in france and UK.

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Originally Posted by hallaig

I think of myself as Scottish rather than British so that rules out Philip Larkin, I'm afraid.
My favourite Scottish writer would be Iain Crichton Smith who wrote in English and Gaelic so beautifully. Cannae resist giving you an example:

TWO GIRLS SINGING


It neither was the words nor yet the tune
Any tune would have done and any words.
Any listener at all.

As nightingales in rocks or a child crooning
in its own world of strange awakening
or larks for no reason but themselves.

So on the bus through late November running
by yellow lights tormented, darkness falling,
the two girls sang for miles and miles together

and it wasn't the words or the tune. It was the singing.
It was the human sweetness in that yellow,
the unpredicted voices of our kind.

---

ı like it

I'm Dutch and probably the most respected Dutch authors are:
- Harry Mulisch
- W.F. Hermans
- Gerard 't Reve
- Hella S. Haasse

Though I am not a big fan of Dutch literature these are the authors known as 'The Great Four' in The Netherlands. Some of their books are definitely worth a read though.

Another Canuck here - I'll throw Alice Munro and Michael Ondaatje into the mix. :)

Norwegian. Henrik Ibsen - the One and Only! :thumbs_up

German. E.T.A. Hoffmann...Gespenster-Hoffmann