Visiting Khet Mar, I am often greeted by the smells of sour soup or stewing fish. While working on my article on the Burmese refugee community in Pittsburgh, she accompanied me to a monastery where we were served spicy curry, dried fish in oil, and mounds of rice. It was my first introduction to Burmese food and I was eager to return the favor.
Read more...
Photo ©: Than Htay Maung Since she was 19-years-old, Khet Mar has been persecuted by the Burmese government. She has been arrested, tortured, incarcerated, and threatened, but she has remained a warrior without guns. She fights …
Read more...
When Richard Wiley was in his 20s, he left his home in Tacoma, Washington to join the Peace Corps. “I didn’t want to get drafted to serve in Vietnam,” said Wiley. “When the Peace Corps asked …
Read more...
Blogging Under Fear — The Risks of Virtual Protests Translated by Alicia Sewald Like those who have placed their hopes for a democratic future in boats, Cuban bloggers place their hope in missives sent into cyberspace …
Read more...
Horacio Castellanos Moya can be described as mischievous, witty, impatient, and brilliant. But it’s the omnipresence of violence that characterizes his fiction. In an essay for Sampsonia Way, “Notes on the Culture of Violence and Fiction …
Read more...
In Cuba, Blogger Yoani Sánchez’s Protests Result in a New Kind of Revolution Translated by Alicia Sewald Yoani Sánchez is known for her blog Generación Y (Generation Y), which documents the experiences and frustrations of Cuba’s …
Read more...
For most high school students, taking a literature class is hardly a life-changing event. Not so for Italo Vasquez-Velasquez. Born in El Salvador, he attended a private high school in the mid-1980s. His teacher assigned books …
Read more...
Carl Phillips on Sampsonia Way Photo by Renee Rosensteel In his poem “Aubade: Some Peaches, After Storm,” Carl Phillips writes “how your hands clear/ easily the wreckage; how you stand–like a building for a time condemned,/ …
Read more...
Vakhtang Komakhidze was an investigative journalist in Georgia with a nose for a story and a record of annoying the authorities. His revelations of official corruption ended in the death threats which forced him to seek asylum in Switzerland. Robin Oisín Llewellyn talked to him about the limits of media freedom in Georgia.
Read more...
In March, 2010, both Terrance Hayes and Lynn Emanuel published new collections of poetry. While very different works, their books share an urgency of voice, something Emanuel characterizes as “social rage.” At the center of Emanuel’s …
Read more...
Sampsonia Way's companion guide to City of Asylum’s Exiled Voice of China and Tibet literary event, featuring standout pieces from its three year coverage of exiled and persecuted writers. READ
World Class Web Hosting® provided as a public service by pair Networks®. Learn more at www.pair.com.
