White poet used Chinese pen name to gain entry into Best American Poetry

11498642576_fa8d3cdd11_mThe 2015 edition of the prestigious anthology Best American Poetry (BAP) is now on sale. A mainstay since 1988, the American anthology is commonly accepted as one of the most important literary platforms for aspiring wordsmiths.

This year, the publication announcement includes an unforeseen onomastic controversy: Appearing alongside Chen Chen’s poem “i will do/undo what was done/undone to me” and Jane Wong’s “Thaw” is Yi-Fen Chou’s award winning poem “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve”. It looks as if three Asian-American authors made the final cut. However, the name Yi-Fen Chou is a pseudonym for Mr. Michael Derrick Hudson, who has no known Asian ancestry.

When asked why he had chosen this pen name, Hudson replied that he resorted to this tactic after his poem was repeatedly rejected under his real name.

As BAP juror and literary heavy-weight Sherman Alexie revealed in an interview with The Guardian that he only learned of Hudson’s non-Asian ancestry after the poem had been selected. According to Alexie, one of his goals when putting the 2015 anthology together was to make sure that it represented the true diversity of the United States. When he therefore learned the real identity of the author behind the name, Yi-Fen Chou, he was livid.

In an interview with TODAY.com, Dr. Timothy Yu, Director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explained that one of the reasons why Hudson’s onomastic subterfuge was so injurious was that it ”fits into a long tradition of […] white Americans appropriating Asian identities and culture.” While poets and pundits will no doubt continue to argue the legitimacy of including Yi-Fen Chou/Hudson’s submission, from an onomastic point of view, this case exemplifies the power of names in forming our opinions and guiding our decision-making.

The poetry foundation offers many reactions to Yi-Fen Chou.

Christian Literary Studies Group (CLSG) Conference: Homiletics / The Game of the Name, Oxford, November 7, 2015

6009799407_cbf12106a1_mOn the 7th of November 2015, the Christian Literary Studies Group (CLSG) will be holding a conference entitled “Homiletics / The Game of the Name” at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (UK). The purpose of the CLSG is to explore the Christian faith via literary analysis.

This year’s conference will explore the significance of names and naming in Biblical texts. Some of the scheduled presentations include:

  • “Christian Names: some aspects of literary onomastics in early English literature”, Dr Paul Cavill, University of Nottingham
  • “Robert Southwell’s sermon The Triumphs over Death”, Dr Mike Nolan, La Trobe University, Melbourne
  • “Wuldorfæder and Heofenrices Weard: The Names of God in Old English Poetry”, Samuel Cardwell, Cambridge

The attendance fee for non-members is £18.  Click here for more information about the conference and to learn about the CLSG Journal, The Glass.

Global coalition tells Facebook to kill its Real Names policy

filed under Name News

The Nameless Coalition, a global alliance of women’s groups, LGBTQ groups, human rights and digital rights groups has asked Facebook to abandon its policy that requires its users to use their legal names. The coalition claims that the use of real names puts some individuals in dangerous situations and disproportionately discriminates against the groups of people most affected by the dangers of  using their real names.… Read More

The Trademarked Name Diesel

download (2)The EU ordered makers of the game DieselStormers to change its name because Diesel Clothing trademarked Diesel not just for clothing, but for every industry. Tech Dirt discusses the decision and considers the purpose of trademarks.

Chinese Authorities Ban Muslim Names Among Uyghurs in Hoten

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

In northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, authorities have banned 22 Muslim names. Children with these names are forbidden from attending school until their names are changed.

Ilshat Hesen, vice president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association, notes that this policy is a human rights violation.

 

See this article for more information and a full list of the banned names.

Scots Names for Snow

18730239312_d2eabbc021_mResearchers at the University of Glasgow have taken on the herculean task of creating a definitive thesaurus of the Scots language.

During the collection of terminology, the scientists were astounded to discover that the language seems to have no fewer than 421 words to describe conditions in the Winter. From spitters, a name for the tiny flakes of snow that ride on wind-driven rain to feefle, reportedly used to name swirling snow.

In an interview featured in a September 2015 issue The Scotsman, a member of the research team, Dr. Rennie, was quoted as saying that “There may be other words out there that we are not yet aware of, and that is where we would welcome the support of the public. If they use or remember words for particular sports or weather, we would love to hear about them.”

Just how many names for Winter weather will be garnered by this public appeal remains to be seen. But, if experience is anything to go by, the current number of Scots snow names catalogued will no doubt rise.

The Great Snow Debate

4254545685_5501860a27_mOne of universally loved stories that college professors  tell undergraduate students in intriguingly entitled courses like “Introduction to Language and Culture” is “The Great Snow Debate”.

As the story goes, one year a set of intrepid yet naïve scientists plowed their way through the frozen tundra to investigate and preserve the language of the indigenous peoples. During their interviews, the researchers noted that the Inuit have a surprisingly large number of names for snow…light snow, wet snow, heavy snow, deep snow… You name it, the Inuit have a moniker for it. Excited by their discovery, some of the scientists decided to concentrate their efforts on snow names. And the more they asked, the more names they uncovered. Soon, more researchers arrived to capture what seemed to be an inexhaustible onomastic store of names. The publications multiplied, careers were made, and contests were waged. No sooner had one researcher reported having identified dozens of snow names than another one came claiming to have recovered more.

At the end of it, the race for names finally collapsed under the weight of the scholarly attention placed upon the sometimes flimsy methodological scaffolding. The fact that interviewees were paid by the name meant that native speakers invented some of the names they reported. Another problem was the simple fact that the researchers grossly underestimated the number of names which many non-indigenous people have for snow. Consider, for example, the breadth and depth of names which meteorologists in Minnesota or skiers in Boulder have to describe snow.

This does not mean to say that all was lost. Despite the lasting chagrin which surrounds the Great Snow Debate, one of the benefits was the development and spread of one of the leading theories of modern linguistics: The Linguistic Theory of Relativity. One of the most important tenet of this theory is that people’s interaction with their physical environment will have a significant affect upon the names they develop to label their perceptual experience.