Sampsonia Way in Brussels
by Silvia Duarte / March 31, 2011 / No comments
Brussel’s Town Hall, where the Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, welcomed members of Halma, PEN International, and ICORN
Last week, Brussels, Belgium was an epicenter of international literature and a meeting point for literary freedom of speech.
As part of the biannual Passa Porta Literary Festival, organizations like the International Cities of Refugees Network (ICORN), the PEN’s Writers in Prison Committees (WiPC), and the literary centers’ network in Europe, Halma, had their own annual meetings while sharing some workshops and attending a common opening event.
Sampsonia Way managing editor, Silvia Duarte, traveled there and met some writers, organizers, and representatives from all the organizations in attendance. In the following weeks we will publish interviews, speeches, readings, debates, and discussions that took place in the Belgian capital.
Read the first interview: Paul Buekenhout, Passa Porta’s coordinator, talks about the biggest literary festival in Brussels.
Read “Is Jasmine a Chinese Flower”, a speech of the Independent Chinese PEN Center President, Tienchi Martin-Liao.
Read the statement of Marian Botsford Fraser, the chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.
Read a letter by a writer imprisoned during the Cuban Black Spring.
Read a Conversation on Translation. Dalkey Archive Press’ publisher John O’Brien talked to three authors featured in Best European Fiction: Igor Štiks from Croatia, Gonçalo M. Tavares from Portugal, and Peter Terrin from Belgium.
