Language of my Choosing

Shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award 2017 and winner of the Premio Flaiano di Italianistica 2018.

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About the Book: 

Where do I truly belong? This is the question Anne Pia continually asked of herself growing up in the Italian-Scots community of post-World War Two Edinburgh.

This candid, vibrant memoir shares her struggle to bridge the gap between a traditional immigrant way of life and attaining her goal of becoming an independent-minded professional woman.

Through her journey beyond the expectations of family, she discovers how much relationships with other people enhance, inhibit and ultimately define self. Yet – like her relationship with her own mother – her ‘belonging’ in her Italian and Scottish heritages remains to this day unresolved and complex.

Reviews: 

Language of My Choosing throws fresh light on the Italian community in Scotland and gives its women their individual voice in a new way. This story resonates with the challenges of migration and immigration which we continue to face today. DONALD SMITH, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre

The language of the title is that of the author’s selfrealisation, as a professional, a mother and an artist. That language, born between different cultures, communities and religions, and between public and domestic life, emerges grateful, nurturing and affirmative. MEG BATEMAN, Poet

Bold and honest, raw at times but ultimately celebratory, beautifully written and razor sharp; a wonderful blend of autobiography and social history. ANN MARIE DI MAMBRO, Playwright and Television Screenwriter

This is the story of a brave and clever woman who refused to deliver the lines that had been prepared for her by the Scottish Italian community that had both nurtured and wounded her. So she set about finding a language of her own choosing that would express the passions of her own restless soul. She has written a book that will challenge its readers to tear up all the scripts society has written for them and find their own words. RICHARD HOLLOWAY

About the Author:

DR ANNE PIA, poet, essayist and translator writes in English, French, Italian and Scots. She is a Saltire Award Finalist, a winner of the Crawford Gallery Cork, Flash Fiction Competition and in 2018 was awarded the prestigious Premio Flaiano Italianistica: La Cultura Italiana nel Mondo. She is also a member of the Guild of Food Writers and in 2022 and 2033 was invited to sit on the judging panel for the Scottish National Book Awards (Poetry). She been invited to review several poetry collections and her poetry and essays have appeared online and UK-wide.

Within a span of 13 years, since retirement, Anne has published three books of non-fiction, 2 full poetry collections and a poetry pamphlet. Her creative memoir and first book, Language of My Choosing was shortlisted for the Saltire Award for Best New Book of 2017 and the Italian language translation, Ho Scelto La Mia Lingua was published in 2018; Keeping Away The Spiders; Essays on Breaching Barriers was published in November 2020 by Luath Press; and Magnaccioni My Food My Italy, a celebration in poetic prose of the culture and way of life in southern Italy, the place of her origins, was published in 2023. 

 Her first poetry collection, Transitory, was published in 2018 and The Sweetness of Demons with translations from French, an oversetting of 14 poems by Baudelaire in Les Fleurs du Mal, was published by Vagabond Voices in April 2021. Dragons Wear Lipstick her poetry pamphlet, a tribute to the women in her life who have in big and small ways, detonated hierarchies, was published by Dreich  in November 2022.

Anne’s work focuses on cultural and sexual identity, and is firmly rooted in her European heritage and cultural interests. She has read at the Stanza International Poetry Festival, SEALL in Skye, the Dundee Literary Festival, Southbank Poetry London, the Paisley and Portobello Book Festivals, Porty Pride, the Burns Birthplace Museum and independent bookshops across Scotland. She is listed in the Scottish Poetry Library Catalogue of Scottish Poets and is a regular contributor to poetry and literary gatherings in Edinburgh, Glasgow and more widely in Scotland. In 2018 she was a guest lecturer at the British Institute in Florence.

Anne has a strong background in Education and leadership.