“When you face up to those in power you always do it from the periphery, whether you are in a neighborhood in Maracaibo, a housing estate in Valencia, a university in Caracas, or in any other part of the world.” Venezuelan writer Israel Centeno on exile and the ongoing struggle with having left.
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Iranian painter Nicky Nodjoumi left his country in 1980 after an exhibition of his work opened in Tehran. “[The authorities] saw the show and they labeled me as anti-revolution, anti-Khomeini, and anti-regime,” he says. He is now an established artist living in New York.
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On the rise and fall (for now) of the popular Butcher Shop, an innovative philanthropic e-commerce project that provides financial aid to families of political prisoners. The venture is organized by Rice-Delivery-Party, a writer/activist collective led by the author and blogger Ye Fu.
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The Sierra Leone parliament’s passage of a freedom of information law is a major step to ensure greater government transparency, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.
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In this interview, Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka talks about his most celebrated characters and plays and how one character was inspired by his “Wild Christian” mother and another by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
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“Like any other bar in any city on earth, nothing was overwhelming…” Traveling the American Midwest six years later, Egyptian writer Hamdy El-Gazzar finds a familiar bar full of characters, life, and creative inspiration.
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“Like any other bar in any city on earth, nothing was overwhelming…” Traveling through the American Midwest six years later, Egyptian writer Hamdy El-Gazzar finds a familiar bar full of characters, life, and creative inspiration.
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“Egypt’s Jon Stewart” is being prosecuted for poking fun at leaked comments by the Defence Minister, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, suggesting that the General would “find partners in the local media willing to collaborate to polish the image of the military.”
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First sentenced in 2011 to life in prison for purportedly criticizing the emir in his poem “Tunisian Jasmine”, Qatari poet Mohammed al-Ajami had his reduced 15-year prison sentence upheld by the Court of Cassation in appeal this October.
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Considering which of Alice Munro’s stories to read can feel something like considering what to eat from an enormous box of chocolates. Here’s a partial guide to the work of the recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Raise your voice in favor of funding the National Endowment for the Arts. Click to learn more...
Cuban Newrrative: An Anthology
Sampsonia Way presents 16 short stories from trendsetting writers of Cuban literature. The anthology is illustrated with work by El Sexto and Luis Trápaga. READ
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