Overview

""All points on a circle are always the same distance from the center."" These exquisite personal essays trace the orbit of author Samina Najmi as she reflects on events, people, and places that shape her vision of the world. Whether she finds herself in Pakistan, England, or the United States, she keeps her family and her love of stories firmly at the center of her life. As Najmi navigates the process of forging her identity as a professor and mother, her extended family inspires, haunts, and stirs her to action. Through sorrows and singing, questions and growth, she passes along a centering love of family and beauty to her children. And like the unsung writers in her family, Najmi seeks home in time and on the page.

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9781949487480

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Reviews

""This book is a balm for our time, a reminder of the importance of storytelling in times of suffering, and a remarkable achievement."" -Janice Lee, author of Imagine a Death ""A compelling addition to South Asia's post-Partition literature, what is phenomenal about this book is the revelation of a recurring passion through the generations: education, especially among the family's women."" -Shadab Zeest Hashmi, author of Comb ""Sing Me a Circle walks us through the shadow valleys of empire, sieving for ethical life in the ruins."" -lawrence-minh bùi davis, co-founder of The Asian American Literary Review ""In a kaleidoscope of colors, smells, voices, experience, Najmi has written a loving ode to her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, a love letter reaching across time and space, and we are so lucky to share in that dream."" -Angela Morales, author of The Girls in My Town ""Sing Me a Circle is filled with wit, keenly observed moments, riveting stories, and priceless wisdom."" -Theo Pauline Nestor, author of Writing Is My Drink ""Patient, thoughtful, but also nimble and surprising, Najmi's writing is epic in scope but attuned to finer details of a life of a multi-national intellectual who moves between cultures and communities in Pakistan, England, and the United States."" -Steven Church, author of I'm Just Getting to the Disturbing Part: on Work, Fear, and Fatherhood and five other books of nonfiction; founding editor of The Normal School

Author Information

Samina Najmi teaches multiethnic US literatures at California State University, Fresno. Besides her scholarship on race, gender, and war in US literatures, she has published creative nonfiction essays in over thirty literary magazines, including World Literature Today. Daughter of multigenerational displacements, Samina grew up in Pakistan and England, spent eighteen years in Massachusetts, and, since 2006, calls Fresno, California, home. Here she has watched with wonder her two children, her many students, and her citrus grow. Samina believes in Fresno's sunsets; in everyone's three feet of influence, and in the power of language and literature to extend our reach beyond.

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