This week’s featured poet is Toi Derricotte. As both a nationally-recognized poet and English professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Derricotte co-founded Cave Canem and serves on the board of directors for City of Asylum/Pittsburgh. Cave Canem offers a home for African-American poetry and aims to help colored poets grow both artistically and professionally.
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Moniro Ravanipour is an Iranian author and writer-in-residence at the City of Asylum Las Vegas. Ravanipour was detained and interrogated by the Iranian government after a reading of one of her eight published books. In this video interview, Ravanipour discusses Iranian censorship, the political situation, and their effects on her writing.
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Arriving here in March 2009, Khet Mar, City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s current writer-in-residence, journeyed with her family on a 45-hour trip from her home in Rangoon, Burma all the way to Sampsonia Way. Living with her husband Than Htay Maung and two sons, Khet Mar has resided on Sampsonia Way now for just over a year.
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Irakli Kakabadze was the writer-in-residence at the Ithaca City of Asylum for the past two years. Hailing from the Caucasus nation of Georgia, Kakabadze suffered persecution at the hands of the government because of the opinions he expressed through his writings and protesting. We corresponded with Kakabadze via email to see what project he is currently working on and to learn about his experiences with City of Asylum.
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On April 27, novelist Tommy Wieringa visited Sampsonia Way to give a reading with Sofi Oksanen and Christos Tsoilkas. The event was sponsored by City of Aslyum/Pittsburgh in partnership with PEN/America.
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Tashi Rabten is one of two Tibetan students arrested by the Chinese government from the Tibet Autonomous Region. As the editior of Shar Dungri (Eastern Snow Mountain), a banned literary magazine, he wrote on the suppression of the March 2008 protests in Lhasa and surrounding regions. Sydney PEN is calling for Tashi’s immediate release from Chinese custody.
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A year ago, when Sampsonia Way asked the writer Er Tai Gao to write about China twenty years after Tiananmen Square, he was more than willing to offer his reflection in Three Thoughts on Tiananmen Square.
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