The following selection compiles 2011’s most-read articles and interviews in Sampsonia Way. Here you’ll read about the work and experiences of writers, editors, bloggers, cartoonists, journalists–and a musician–from Ireland, Kenya, China, Mexico, Burma, Afghanistan, and other countries around the world.
Readers have helped spread their words; now enjoy revisiting some of the year’s most-read on Sampsonia Way. Click on an image to go to its original article.
Hervé Le Tellier/French Writer
"Towns should be given large parks. Parks are a condition necessary for young people's lives to change course. to set off on a different track, down an unforeseen fork. For them to realize part of their potential." Read the excerpt from Enough About Love
Philo Ikonya/ Kenyan Writer
"I could have run and hid, but someone was beating my colleague. I knew he would have a very hard time if I did not stay. This particular policeman was notorious; when he came to me, he was very brutal...For two years I felt pain lifting anything." Read the interview.
Liao Yiwu/ Chinese Writer
"The prison memoir is my biography. It's about my life between 1989 when I was a poet and then was locked up, all the way to 1994 when I was released. It is about how I turned from a poet into a witness of history." Read the interview.
Horacio Castellanos Moya / Salvadorian Writer
Ko Ko Thett / Burmese Writer, Editor; James Byrne/ English Poet, Editor
"When we select poems, we try to choose pieces that are reflective of Burma as well as those which are reflective of the current global situation. It's a window into the world of the poets; not only into their country, but also into their hearts as well." Read the interview.
Amiri Baraka/ American Writer
"We rented a brownstone in Harlem and tore out the bottom floor and set up a theater, and then we began to send trucks out into the street: Four trucks every night with music and dance and poetry...We thought that if we were supposed to be doing such profound artistic things, we needed to bring that right into the neighborhood." Read the interview
Mesfin Negash/ Ethiopian Journalist
"These days it is very difficult to call someone in Ethiopia and talk freely; they are very afraid! They will say, 'We are fine, we are fine. How are you? Ok, goodnight.' You can imagine th effect of these factors on our reporting from exile."
Read the interview.
Prosecuted Cartoonist
"Political cartooning is a labor of love...I have no problem with reactions from politicians; in fact, I welcome their reactions. If their reactions are brutal, then my response is equally brutal."--Tony Namte, Zimbabewan Cartoonist. Read the Article.
Dermot Bolger/ Irish Writer
"The way I became involved was to found the Raven Arts Press at the age of 18. We had 30 pounds and we did everything by hand. We collated the pages and brought them to a printer on the back of bicycles, we stapled them together, and we sold them around pubs." Read the Article.
Eduardo Halfon/ Guatemalan Writer
"She asked what writing meant to me, and I took a swig of beer and a deep drag on my cigarette and, exhaling all the smoke along with my words, answered that to write was to die a little." Read the Story.
SujeethG/ Tamil Rapper
"I started rapping in Tamil when I realized that it was a great medium to reach out to the second generation of the Tamil Diaspora. I had been a columnist, writing essays and social commentary, but I wanted to connect with the youth who were at the forefront of our struggle." Read the Interview.
Judith Torrea/ Mexican Journalist, Blogger
"Torrea didn't answer questions about if she faces direct threats to her life. She only emphasized: 'I'm not afraid. If I was afraid I would not live in Juárez. I know I'm in danger and that the risks increase when you don't sell yourself to the drug traffickers or the authorities." Read the Profile.
Gary Shteyngart/American Writer
"Why do we have these devices? To save labor, to have time to relax and enjoy things. But that's not how it works at all. It sucks us into a world where we're working harder and harder. The devices own us, not the other way around. We are enslaved to technology." Read the Interview.
Afghan Women's Writing Project
"A sampling from the women's writing demonstrates an urgent need to express themselves, whether it be to rage about injustice against women or simply share what they see outside their window." Read the article.
