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

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.

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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.

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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.