My essay for Catapult
Reconnecting with my Croatian roots through my daughter, seafood & language
I’m excited to share my essay, Raising My Daughter to Be an Octopus Lover, published today by Catapult. I’ve written for places like The New York Times and The Washington Post, but this piece feels extra special because it’s my first for a literary site. And if you follow this newsletter, you’ll notice I often feature work from Catapult.
“Somewhere along the way of trying to lose my accent, I lose myself. While learning English, I shed pieces of my old self and language in order to assimilate. I’m not sure when it happens. It takes one move to become an immigrant, but years can pass before you discard bits of your heritage.”
A couple of years ago, I decided to pursue creative writing more and one of the first things I did was take a personal essay class with Catapult. In the class, I met a group of fantastic women and we still meet to critique each other’s writing. Publishing this essay on Catapult’s site feels like it came full circle, and I’m so grateful to my writing group and the editor who accepted the piece and guided it to publication.
The essay went through countless versions before I submitted it—the final product combines what started off as two stories; one about raising an octopus lover and the other about forgetting Croatian. A lot of my recent writing—like this newsletter—explores issues of identity and belonging that emerge from my immigrant experience. Writing is helping me navigate these areas, and this piece is no exception. I did not have the essay mapped out when I started it, nor did I have an ending in mind. But through the writing process, I saw certain themes crystalize, and the role my daughter played in reconnecting with my Croatian roots became more clear.
If you enjoy reading it, I’d greatly appreciate if you could share it with others. Here is another photo with my daughter, from the beautiful island of Vis:
And here is the octopus I refer to in the ending…
I’ll be back next month with a regular issue of the newsletter—writing about immigrant life by immigrants and children of immigrants.
Thanks for reading,
Vesna