Literary Instances
"Selah!" is used at the end of the second part (titled Dimanche) of Conversations dans le Loir-et-Cher by French writer Paul Claudel (1935). Selah is the last word in Anita Diamant's book The Red Tent and in Edward Dahlberg's Because I Was Flesh. Katherine Kurtz uses it in some of her Deryni novels, including The King's Justice (1985); it is among the acquired Eastern influences on the ritual practices of Deryni at King Kelson's court, largely brought by Richenda, Duchess of Corwyn, after her marriage to Duke Alaric Morgan. It is also the last word in Gilbert Sorrentino's novel Little Casino (2002), probably in homage to Dahlberg. In Hunter S. Thompson's collected works "Songs of the Doomed", "The Proud Highway: Saga of A Desperate Southern Gentleman 1955-1967", and Fear and Loathing in America: the Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, The Gonzo Letters Volume Two 1968-1976 the word Selah is used frequently in letters and diatribes written from the 1960s to the 1990s. The word is used similarly to the word allora in Italy. It is also akin to Kurt Vonnegut's use of the phrase "So it goes" in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five. It is also used by famous Czech writer and philosopher John Amos Comenius at the end one of his books (Ksaft). "Selah" is the name of a song by R&B/Hip-Hop artist Lauryn Hill. Selah was also defined to mean 'pause and consider' in Babylon 5 episode "Deconstruction of Falling Stars". "Selah" is also the title of a miniature for trio (flute, clarinet and piano) by Argentinean composer Juan Maria Solare.
Characters named Selah appear in:
- George Elliot Clarke's long narrative poem Whylah Falls
- the film The Book of Eli
- Shane Jones's first novel Light Boxes
- Charlaine Harris's novel Dead as a Doornail
- Virginia Hamilton's novel The House of Dies Drear
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