Rajia Hassib: The Emotional Impact of Switching Tongues

Rajia Hassib is the Egyptian-American author of two widely reviewed novels: In the Language of Miracles and A Pure Heart .

She moved to the U.S. when she was 23 and a few years later, she started writing fiction in English. In a beautiful article  written for LitHub a few months ago, Rajia reflected on what switching tongues meant for her and for her creativity, and how it gave her more artistic freedom. In this episode of Chosen Tongue, we chatted about the emotional impact of choosing English to share her point of view and her story as a Muslim woman in the U.S., Raja's fascination with Nabokov as a translingual writer, and how her sense of humour may or may not have recovered from her switch to English.