I shared the news that Abdulrazak Gurnah had won the Nobel Prize in Literature with my eighth-grade writing class last week.
Gurnah began writing in a dairy when he was forced to leave his native Zanzibar for England in 1964.
“Miserable, poor, homesick, he began to write scraps about home in his diary, then longer entries, then stories about other people. Those scattered reflections, the habit of writing to understand and document his own dislocation, eventually gave rise to his first novel, then nine more — works that explore the lingering trauma of colonialism, war and displacement.” – The New York Times
I encouraged the students to write in their journals at home. For Gurnah, it all started with a diary, I told them.
“Can I apply for that prize?” one of the students asked.