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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm SteveEmber.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we have the third and last part ofour series about writers and the immigrant experience.

VOICE ONE:

Last January we talked about Asian American writers. In Decemberit was writers with ties to Central and South America and theCaribbean.

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Now, to complete our series, we look at four writers and theinfluence of their ancestry in the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

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VOICE ONE:

Elmaz Abinader was born to parents from Lebanon. The writer andpoet grew up in a small town in the eastern American state ofPennsylvania.

Her family spoke mostly Arabic at home. She says her family wasvery close, but at school other children insulted her for beingdifferent. She looked for some connection between her two lives.

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Elmaz Abinader says everythingchanged when she went to college. She took control of her identity.She began to cook Middle Eastern foods and to listen to Arabic musicwith her friends. She also began to write about her grandmother.

Miz Abinader studied writing in college. But she says most of theAmerican writers she studied had European roots. She felt that herculture was not welcome in American writing. This was in thenineteen seventies.

At some point, she read a book that, in her words, "made thedifference." The book was "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a GirlhoodAmong Ghosts." It was written by the Chinese American writer MaxineHong Kingston. In it, she tells stories about her Chinesegrandmother, and about children considered too American for theirimmigrant family.

This book led Elmaz Abinader to read works by others outside thecenter of American culture, such as African American and Latinowriters. She found a community of people like her, learning to livein two cultures.

VOICE ONE:

Miz Abinader went on to earn a doctorate in writing. She calledher first book, in nineteen ninety-one, "Children of the Roojme: AFamily's Journey from Lebanon." It is about her family's move overthe years to the United States.

She also writes poetry. And she writes and performs plays. Herplay "Country of Origin" is about the struggles of three ArabAmerican women. The play includes music that is a mix of old MiddleEastern sounds and present-day jazz.

Elmaz Abinader says she began to understand years ago that as awriter, she was also an activist. Today she is a professor ofcreative writing at Mills College in Oakland, in NorthernCalifornia. She says a beautiful story or a good poem can affect areader more than any speech.

Her aim, she says, is to make the story of Arab Americans asimportant as that of any other group in the United States.

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VOICE TWO:

In September of two thousand four,the writer Aleksandar Hemon received a MacArthur Foundation award.These are known as "genius awards." They are given each year toindividuals who show great creativity in their work. MacArthurFellows are given five hundred thousand dollars over five years tospend as they wish.

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of "The Question of Bruno" and"Nowhere Man." Both books are about young men born in Sarajevo.Their lives are changed by the war in the former Yugoslavia in theearly nineteen nineties.

Like the men in his books, Mister Hemon grew up in Sarajevo. Hebecame a reporter and writer. He came to the United States innineteen ninety-two as part of a cultural program. He wastwenty-seven years old. After the Bosnian war started, Mister Hemoncould not return home. He stayed in America and settled in Chicago.

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Book critics have praised his expert and beautiful use of theEnglish language. Yet Aleksandar Hemon spoke only a little Englishwhen he arrived in the United States. He got low-paying work. Heimproved his language skills very quickly by reading books inEnglish. Mister Hemon wrote his first book in English after onlythree years in the United States.

He has said that one of the most difficult things for him as anew immigrant was this: Recognizing the difference between what hewanted to say and what he was really saying. He says this changedthe way he thought about the self. And it changed his writing. Hesaw that a person was made up of many selves.

Aleksander Hemon also writes about displaced people who do notfeel part of any community. He says telling stories is one way torecord the old life that is lost, perhaps in war. He says storiesshould be told about wars and genocide so that the official versionof history is not the only one that exists.

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VOICE TWO:

Andrei Codrescu has published many books of poetry. He has alsowritten about his life and his travels. But he is best known for hiscommentaries on American culture on National Public Radio. He livesin New Orleans and is a professor of writing at Louisiana StateUniversity. He also heads the literary magazine Exquisite Corpse,now published on the Internet.

Andrei Codrescu was born in Sibu, Romania, in nineteen forty-six.When he was nineteen years old, he left the country with his mother.Mister Codrescu says Israel paid two thousand dollars each to buyfreedom for Jews in communist Romania. At that time, West Germanydid the same for ethnic Germans in Romania.

But instead of going to Israel, Mister Codrescu and his mothercame to the United States. He says he now feels more American thananything else. He became an American citizen in nineteen eighty-one.

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Andrei Codrescu began to writepoetry when he was sixteen years old. He says Romanians have astrong love for poetry, and a language that expresses images well.He also says writing poetry was a rebellious act because thecommunists banned a lot of writing.

Years later, as an American, Mister Codrescu recorded the end ofcommunist rule in Romania in nineteen eighty-nine. He wrote a book,"The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile's Story of Return andRevolution."

Andrei Codrescu has also traveled around the United States andobserved life. His film "Road Scholar" describes unusualcommunities. He wrote a book with the same name. He says he learnedthat people with differences can live together.

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Many new immigrants in America are from Africa. Chimamanda NgoziAdichie is from Nigeria. She has published short stories and a book,"Purple Hibiscus." It has been nominated for international prizes,including the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Orange Prize.

"Purple Hibiscus" won the two thousand four Hurston/Wright LegacyAward for a first work of fiction. These awards honor writers ofAfrican ancestry.

Miz Adiche grew up in the university town of Nsukka. Her parentswere professors. She came to the United States in nineteenninety-six to go to college. She was nineteen years old.

She says Nigeria will always be her home. But she says she needsdistance to be able to write about that country better. In fact,Chimamanda Adichie says that sometimes, when she is back in Nigeria,she writes about Nigerians in America.

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"Purple Hibiscus" is set in Nigeria. It is about a young womangrowing up in a troubled family while the country faces politicalunrest. There are some similarities to real-life events. Miz Adichiesays the stories of people who suffered must be told.

"Purple Hibiscus" also deals with the importance of modernreligion in Nigeria today. At the same time, Chimamanda Adichieexplores the clash between modern religion and African tradition.

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