Congratulations to A-frame alumna Sadiqa de Meijer, whose Alfabet/Alphabet has won the non-fiction category of the Governor General’s Literay Awards for 2021.  Alfabet/Alphabet, published by Palimpsest Press, is the record of de Meijer’s transition from speaking Dutch to English.

The peer assessment committee — Sarah de Leeuw, Amanda Leduc and Evelyn C. White — had this to say:

“Language as the mother of bond and breach is beautifully storied in Sadiqa de Meijer’s poignant and provocative memoir….
This is a book that dreams of transforming migration, citizenship, families, nationhood and the very utterances upon which each is built. A deeply hopeful narrative about language itself, a singular exploration of the way that words build a home.”