Why this blog

Many literary works are read in languages other than those used by their authors. Some very obvious random examples are the New Testament, the Iliad, Oedipus Rex, Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, Noli Me Tangere, and One Hundred Years of Solitude. The list is endless. But just as important to literary history are the works written in languages other than the mother tongues of the authors. Immediately coming to mind are authors like Joseph Conrad, Jose Rizal, Nick Joaquin, Bienvenido Santos, Shirley Geok-lin Lim. Though shorter than the other list, this list is also pretty long. This blog welcomes posts about these authors and/or their works. For an epigraph/epigram, this blog could very well use the self-description of Filipino writer N.V.M. Gonzalez, who grew up speaking and writing in Tagalog but became famous for his novels and short stories in English: "I write in Tagalog, using English words."