{"id":87692,"date":"2015-07-13T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=87692"},"modified":"2015-07-13T11:43:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T15:43:13","slug":"good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Literary Citizens: An Interview with Ladan Osman"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Tariq Tarey<\/p><\/div>\n

The past two years have been eventful for Ladan Osman. Last year, her chapbook, <\/em>Ordinary Heaven, was selected for inclusion in the box set <\/em>Seven New Generation African Poets<\/a>, a project of the African Poetry Book Fund, and she received the 2014 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for her manuscript <\/em>The Kitchen-Dweller\u2019s Testimony<\/a>, which was published in April by the University of Nebraska Press.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI have rarely encountered a young poet whose work was so completely its own thing,\u201d writes Ted Kooser in his preface to <\/em>Ordinary Heaven. The speakers in Osman\u2019s poems are often women, and the book tackles themes of love and loss, displacement and authority. At its heart is the notion of bearing witness and what that means both in a larger political sense and in very intimate ways. The language is rich and playful and can be both brutal and transformative\u2014sometimes in the same poem.<\/em><\/p>\n

Osman spoke with me recently by phone from her home in Chicago about metaphor, translation, and family influence.<\/em><\/p>\n

How has your background informed your work?<\/b><\/p>\n

My parents are from Mogadishu, Somalia. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, in neighborhoods that were largely populated, if not by Somalis, then by East Africans. So many different elements go into my work, but there\u2019s a very direct link to the way my parents would tell stories\u2014their comfort using parables, making leaps in language, speaking in metaphors. My father would often point to a complex image or something strange and say, Look, it\u2019s a metaphor. But he wouldn\u2019t explain further. My parents speak English and other languages, but they\u2019re most comfortable speaking Somali and they would speak Somali to us. So I always felt like I was doing some kind of translating. And things that are untranslatable\u2014that\u2019s poetry, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being a first-generation immigrant puts you in a unique position\u2014you have a deep connection with Somalia and to your parents\u2019 experiences, but most of it is secondhand.<\/b><\/p>\n

That\u2019s an act of translation as well. The stakes are much higher because there\u2019s always something about my identity that feels fluid. There are often questions\u2014if not from myself, then from outside myself\u2014that have to do with loyalty and where I\u2019m rooted. I was educated in the States. I have loved and matured here in the States. I\u2019m rooted to America, and specifically to Ohio, but cellular memory calls to places I haven\u2019t seen in my adult life. Sometimes negotiating that feels like a challenge. In my poems, too\u2014trying to figure out who the work is for, what the work is for, what it is meant to do. Those considerations are definitely worthwhile, but they go far beyond poetry.<\/p>\n

In his foreword to <\/b>Kitchen-Dweller<\/i><\/b>, Kwame Dawes describes your \u201cpersistent and dogged desire to leave no questions unasked and to regard experience as worthy of probing in search of meaning.\u201d He also wrote of your \u201cbelief in poetry\u2019s capacity to transform through witnessing.\u201d I think that\u2019s a valuable frame for your work.<\/b><\/p>\n

Kwame wrote a generous foreword. In workshops, sometimes there\u2019s one reader who understands your work, how to frame it, and who gives critiques that are elemental and very meaningful. Though I was drafting most of the poems before I even knew Kwame, it has been such a privilege to receive what almost seems like retroactive support from him. That\u2019s how total I feel his understanding is\u2014of not only my work but also my intentions while drafting.<\/p>\n

Inquiry is my most direct route to understanding. If I find language for the archetypal stories I encounter, if I can weave them with image systems available in the world around me, I find a way to connect with others\u2019 intimate histories. I think sincere witness can function like a skeleton key. A good story\u2014one that knows its use and power\u2014startling imagery and syntax, and a curious perspective can help us bypass problematic social and political structures that are in part designed to limit voice.<\/p>\n

Where did the book\u2019s title come from?<\/b><\/p>\n

Kitchen-dweller<\/i> is my translation of two things. A jiko muufo<\/i> is a traditional Somali clay oven. It\u2019s also a joke about a woman who really loves domestic work. The way I understood it as a child is that this kind of woman loves the work so much, she stands over the bread watching it rise. That it would be a joke\u2014something to be disregarded\u2014was an even deeper relegation. I haven\u2019t encountered any culture that doesn\u2019t impose very real limitations on a woman\u2019s capacities. I wanted the title, and much of the book, to point to women\u2019s bodies navigating public and private spaces.<\/p>\n

It was important for me to address all the ways people attempt to override the narratives of our own lives, and the ways we subjugate ourselves and second-guess our own sense of witness. I wanted that idea to start at the level of the title. The poems examine essential limitations of space, limitations on the imagination, limitations of what we do or what we are made to do. And what is to be avoided, especially when ways of being or telling signal too much freedom, generate too many pointed questions. It\u2019s interesting, too, that in the West, there\u2019s resistance from other women to any mention of kitchens or domestic space. As if that resistance isn\u2019t also politically charged.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilhouette\u201d is about your attending a reading by Claudia Rankine in 2011. You write, \u201cI don\u2019t belong, the luxury of thinking, the wealth of talking about thought<\/b>.<\/i><\/b>\u201d<\/b> What was this written in response to?<\/b><\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t been living in Chicago very long and was finding it difficult\u2014the city is so segregated that people feel like they only belong in certain neighborhoods. I\u2019ve never encountered a city like that before, and it was hard sometimes to get around, but I really wanted to go to that reading. I rushed there from my not-so-great job, and I felt out of place, as a black woman, as someone not affiliated with any institution. But Claudia Rankine gave a lovely reading and afterward we had a conversation about shame. I admitted sometimes that I sensed I should apologize but wasn\u2019t sure where I was mistaken, what prompted that impression. She said that there\u2019s no place for shame in my vocabulary. I went home and thought about it and realized that I needed to expel that sense of degradation. Writing is a way of problem solving. It gives me a kind of control that I don\u2019t typically have.<\/p>\n

How useful is the <\/b>African Poetry Book Fund <\/b>series as a frame for people to read your work? Is being categorized as an \u201cAfrican poet\u201d something you find constricting, something that doesn\u2019t really encompass what you do?<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m grateful that my work has an opportunity to be in communication with emerging and established African poets, to be part of an initiative interested not only in archiving what\u2019s already there and making it easy to access, but also in the establishment of libraries, in publishing a variety of voices. That\u2019s larger than my own work. That conversation is ongoing, and I consider it a privilege to be one of the first, along with Clifton Gachagua, to be part of that movement.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had people openly tell me that if a poem with my name on it came across their desks, they would throw it in the garbage. I don\u2019t think you\u2019re asking this, but there\u2019s no way to mask my identity\u2014and I don\u2019t have any interest in doing so. If I\u2019ve done what I\u2019m supposed to do, the identity of the person reading the work doesn\u2019t really matter. My interest is in storytelling. I think the frame was always going to exist. When I\u2019m communicating with the African Poetry Book Fund, with Kwame Dawes, with other editors there, I don\u2019t have to worry about fighting, and there are misunderstandings that I won\u2019t encounter with them. There are many people who don\u2019t have to engage with a struggle that emerges from their very basic identity. And I appreciate that being among Africans means I don\u2019t feel exoticized, I don\u2019t feel special. I\u2019m among peers and elders, doing my work.<\/p>\n

Some of the poems in <\/b>Kitchen-Dweller<\/i><\/b> function like prayers, and it sounds as though these poems have helped to introduce you to a community, which is something that religion offers.<\/b><\/p>\n

Community and guidance. It\u2019s one thing to be taken care of professionally and to be supported creatively, but I\u2019m also around people\u2014Kwame Dawes and Matthew Shenoda, specifically\u2014who are a model for living. They\u2019re very serious people and they\u2019re sure-footed, but I don\u2019t get a sense that they\u2019re attached to worldly things. Witnessing the choices they\u2019ve made as writers, as teachers, as good literary citizens, and also in their partnerships and who they are as fathers is a kind of total support that I would not have known to ask for. I fully acknowledge there are people who have been working hard for a long time and don\u2019t have this configuration available to them. It means I have to show up and take it seriously.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also interested in work and what work is. Religion argues there\u2019s a pleasant way to be alone in the world. It\u2019s not isolation exactly, but you\u2019re focused and there\u2019s a lot you have to process internally. I appreciate that meditation affords a sense of peace while toiling. It\u2019s worthwhile not only in the world but in your emotional and spiritual life. There are parallels between art making and the roles that religious communities prescribe for everyone. What is your responsibility in bearing witness, in sharing, what does charity really mean and how do you consider that outside of yourself? It\u2019s not exactly what drives me, but it is interesting. Ted Kooser has said that religion is people coming together to do good or to be peaceful at the same time.<\/p>\n

In \u201cMy Father Drops His Larynx,\u201d you write about a father\u2019s health issues and finding him in this weakened state. The poem is rife with pain and agony, but it\u2019s transformative as well. That\u2019s something you do in many poems.<\/b><\/p>\n

I had been thinking about primordial fear, the fear that comes being an adult and thinking about aging and the distance from your parents\u2014physical distance, emotional distance. How we deal when our parents are silent and there\u2019s a mystery around their struggle, but also what happens when they\u2019re not able to tell us their stories anymore, what happens when you haven\u2019t asked enough questions. These meditations changed the logic of the poem. I was thinking about a time my father was ill. I wondered what it would mean for my father to lose his voice, lose his ability to tell stories. I started thinking about frailty. What would it mean if I had a child watching me in a moment of physical weakness?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a straightforward poem that suddenly reaches into the future and imagines my father as an elderly figure\u2014which he\u2019s not now. It was necessary to have an element of the surreal so that I didn\u2019t have to look at this pain directly. I worried about it as a small child\u2014losing my parents. It\u2019s the same kind of yearning I feel when I\u2019m around libraries. I\u2019ll never read all the books. I\u2019ll never be able to fully feel my parents and really inhabit their stories. They will pass without me fully knowing them. The reverse is also true\u2014although they\u2019ve witnessed the entire thread of my life, they can\u2019t really understand me. There\u2019s also tension between girls\u2019 bodies and adult male bodies throughout the book, and it was important for me to be mindful of the father and the brother figures, to create moments of safety and tenderness in the book, to balance assailment and welcome vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Even when you write about fear and loss and the threat of violence, your sense of language is very playful. It sounds as though you got a lot of that from your parents.<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes. My mother would talk about something very normal, like what she did that day, but sometimes other people and other times would get mixed into it, and she\u2019d decide to use figurative language. The language of symbols communicated her associations, the movement of her mind, more accurately. There\u2019s a flow my parents enter only when speaking with each other. It\u2019s all play\u2014it looks like you\u2019re having an argument, but you\u2019re not, or it looks like a straightforward conversation, but you\u2019re really seducing them. When you listen to two people talk, you sometimes hear one person take on the vocabulary of the more alluring speaker\u2014their cadence starts to shift, maybe even their accent changes slightly. I love watching that.<\/p>\n

Poems like \u201cTrouble\u201d came from misspeakings or found language that I rearranged over time. I collected phrases for probably two years. I\u2019ve primarily taught in communities of ESL speakers, where there\u2019s a particular attentiveness to language. I\u2019m fascinated by our belief in words and how we demonstrate that belief on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

Alex Dueben has written for\u00a0<\/em>The Rumpus, the\u00a0Poetry Foundation,\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0Daily Beast, and elsewhere. His interview with William Gibson was included in\u00a0<\/em>Conversations with William Gibson<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The past two years have been eventful for Ladan Osman. Last year, her chapbook, Ordinary Heaven, was selected for inclusion in the box set Seven New Generation African Poets, a project of the African Poetry Book Fund, and she received the 2014 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for her manuscript The Kitchen-Dweller\u2019s Testimony, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[907],"tags":[18757,938,18531,18759,18758,18761,687,165,18760,2058],"class_list":["post-87692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","tag-african-poetry-book-fund","tag-chicago","tag-claudia-rankine","tag-clifton-gachagua","tag-kwame-dawes","tag-ladan-osman","tag-language","tag-poetry","tag-somalia","tag-ted-kooser"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLadan Osman on Writing Poetry that Stays Close to Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ladan Osman\u2019s poetry draws on the language of her Somalian parents and her community of mentors.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good Literary Citizens: An Interview with Ladan Osman by Alex Dueben\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"July 13, 2015 \u2013 The past two years have been eventful for Ladan Osman. Last year, her chapbook, Ordinary Heaven, was selected for inclusion in the box set Seven New\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-13T15:00:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-07-13T15:43:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3751\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2988\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alex Dueben\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alex Dueben\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alex Dueben\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/905637dcd06974d2de0ca3542de5c4f4\"},\"headline\":\"Good Literary Citizens: An Interview with Ladan Osman\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-13T15:00:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-07-13T15:43:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/\"},\"wordCount\":2315,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1-1024x816.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"African Poetry Book Fund\",\"Chicago\",\"Claudia Rankine\",\"Clifton Gachagua\",\"Kwame Dawes\",\"Ladan Osman\",\"language\",\"poetry\",\"Somalia\",\"Ted Kooser\"],\"articleSection\":[\"At Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/\",\"name\":\"Ladan Osman on Writing Poetry that Stays Close to Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1-1024x816.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-13T15:00:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-07-13T15:43:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"Ladan Osman\u2019s poetry draws on the language of her Somalian parents and her community of mentors.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1.jpg\",\"width\":3751,\"height\":2988,\"caption\":\"Photo: Tariq Tarey\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Good Literary Citizens: An Interview with Ladan Osman\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/905637dcd06974d2de0ca3542de5c4f4\",\"name\":\"Alex Dueben\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d609cb553d5b17e1aa5efbe7875889d197c91f66b270526f6158c666d8c72b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d609cb553d5b17e1aa5efbe7875889d197c91f66b270526f6158c666d8c72b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alex Dueben\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/adueben\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ladan Osman on Writing Poetry that Stays Close to Home","description":"Ladan Osman\u2019s poetry draws on the language of her Somalian parents and her community of mentors.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good Literary Citizens: An Interview with Ladan Osman by Alex Dueben","og_description":"July 13, 2015 \u2013 The past two years have been eventful for Ladan Osman. Last year, her chapbook, Ordinary Heaven, was selected for inclusion in the box set Seven New","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-07-13T15:00:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-07-13T15:43:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":3751,"height":2988,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Alex Dueben","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alex Dueben","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/"},"author":{"name":"Alex Dueben","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/905637dcd06974d2de0ca3542de5c4f4"},"headline":"Good Literary Citizens: An Interview with Ladan Osman","datePublished":"2015-07-13T15:00:08+00:00","dateModified":"2015-07-13T15:43:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/"},"wordCount":2315,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1-1024x816.jpg","keywords":["African Poetry Book Fund","Chicago","Claudia Rankine","Clifton Gachagua","Kwame Dawes","Ladan Osman","language","poetry","Somalia","Ted Kooser"],"articleSection":["At Work"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/","name":"Ladan Osman on Writing Poetry that Stays Close to Home","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1-1024x816.jpg","datePublished":"2015-07-13T15:00:08+00:00","dateModified":"2015-07-13T15:43:13+00:00","description":"Ladan Osman\u2019s poetry draws on the language of her Somalian parents and her community of mentors.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/osman_1.jpg","width":3751,"height":2988,"caption":"Photo: Tariq Tarey"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Good Literary Citizens: An Interview with Ladan Osman"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/905637dcd06974d2de0ca3542de5c4f4","name":"Alex Dueben","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d609cb553d5b17e1aa5efbe7875889d197c91f66b270526f6158c666d8c72b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d609cb553d5b17e1aa5efbe7875889d197c91f66b270526f6158c666d8c72b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alex Dueben"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/adueben\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87692"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87729,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87692\/revisions\/87729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}