Belonging — and Not Quite

Both Jehona Kicaj and Dmitrij Kapitelman write from the experience of living with multiple, simultaneous forms of belonging. With backgrounds shaped by migration, displacement, and minority identities, they explore what it means to belong in a society that often expects clear‑cut answers about who you are and where you come from. In this conversation, they come together to talk about language as both home and estrangement, about loyalty and rupture—towards family, nation, and history, and about how literary style can be used to write oneself into, and out of, identities that others define on your behalf.