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 …
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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,/ …
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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.
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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 …
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For three days in March, Oliver Lake visited Sampsonia Way on Pittsburgh’s North Side where City of Asylum/Pittsburgh has a row of houses for writers in exile adorned with original artwork. Lake has traveled to Pittsburgh …
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In 2004 businessman Henry Reese established COA/P as a refuge for creative writers suffering from persecution in their homelands. Six years later, COA/P is a series of row houses fronting on a narrow alley called Sampsonia …
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On January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake rocked the nation of Haiti. The country’s writers—both at home and abroad—responded with poems, articles, and interviews. However for more than a hundred years, Haitian writers have been writing …
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Prepared by Nadine Pinede and Danielle Legros George Poetry Volumes Félix Morisseau-Leroy, Haitiad and Oddities Danielle Georges, Maroon Marilene Phipps, Crossroads and Unholy Water Patrick Sylvain, Love, Lust and Loss Anthologies Edited by Claudine Michel, Marlene …
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The Rwandan government has made remarkable strides in infrastructure, the economy, healthcare, and gender equity in political representation, but their continued attack on independent thought and criticism is disheartening – and dangerous. As the August presidential election looms, it is important not only to hail Rwanda’s success but also to ask hard questions about government abuse of authority.
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This month we have dedicated our coverage to Burma and it’s repressive and secretive regime. Because publishing is so tightly controlled there and the government regulates communication, it is difficult to have access to stories of daily life in Burma, a perspective offered here by City of Asylum writer-in-residence Khet Mar. Khet Mar fled Burma in 2006 after her relief work with Cyclone Nargis survivors attracted the attention of the junta.
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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
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