Inarticulacy in Creative Writing Practice and Translation : Where Language Thickens

Shortlisted for the international 2026 Max Nänny Word and Image Prize.

An investigation into the powerful effects occurring at the threshold between articulation and inarticulation in original and translated works, this book models how creative writing research, practice, processes, products and theories can further academic thought. At the threshold of in/articulacy, language can be said to ‘thicken’ and obscure the usual conditions of legibility or lexical meaning, becoming unfamiliar, flexible, incomplete, even absent. These ‘thickening’ moments alter and enrich literary processes and texts to initiate a paradigm shift in composition, translation and reading experiences. Interrogating this shift from the viewpoints of writers, translators and readers, Judy Kendall draws on translation studies, literary theory, anthropology, philosophy and physics and more to examine the practices of Semantic Poetry Translation, code-switching, made-up English, visual text, vital materiality and the material-discursive. Breaking new ground with her enactment of the ways in which creative writing can take an active and productive lead in research enquiries, Kendall looks at works including Old English riddles, Nigerian novels, J R. R. Tolkien’s and Ursula K. Le Guin’s narratives, Caroline Bergvall’s hybrid works, Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker, Patrick Chamoiseau’s novels, Zong! and several other visual texts.