We Are Speaking in Code

Living on the Fringe With Grace, Humour and Lucid Rage

Tanya Vavilova

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English

Hardie Grant Books
29 February 2020

Biography: general; Bargains; Biography - Australian

We Are Speaking in Code explores difference and deviance in the everyday through the lenses of mental illness, queerness and migrant identity. Weaving personal anecdotes with reflections on trauma, psychology and contemporary relationships this collection of essays catalogues, reconsiders and unravels ideas of belonging, identity and the way we operate in the world.

Opening with a visit ‘home’ to Moscow where she speaks an alphabet-soup Russian, Vavilova tries to connect with her mother and grandmother. The titular essay starts one of the central conversations of the book; what does it mean to be a migrant whose identity is impossible in the land of their forebears and highly complicated in their home. Vavilova also tackles the millennial preoccupations of finding meaningful paid work, navigating dating in the tech age and the perils of building a living as an artist.

Bridging social, emotional and geographic distances, Vavilova’s essays look for ways to live on the edges, with grace, humour and lucid rage.

By: Tanya Vavilova
Imprint: Hardie Grant Books
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 135mm,
ISBN: 9781922267153
ISBN 10: 1922267155
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 29 February 2020
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Tanya Vavilova's essays and short stories have been published in Meanjin, The Lifted Brow, Seizure, the Mascara Literary Review, Slow Canoe and the UTS Writers' Anthology, among other places. Her short story 'Artichoke Hearts' won the Wollongong Writers Festival Short Story Prize in 2018. She was recently awarded the Writers NSW Varuna Fellowship and was a Bundanon Trust Artist-in-Residence in 2019. We are Speaking in Code is her first book.