Fearless, Ink.

Horacio Castellanos Moya

Corkscrew
Corkscrew is focused on Latin American issues. Literature, journalism and politics are the main concerns of this column. A corkscrew is useful only if it opens a bottle, hopefully full of something that would enlighten our spirits, but we could also set loose a cruel Genie or a rotten wine. The author will follow this principle: look for topics that open debates, new perspectives, and controversy. Cheers!

Israel Centeno

Night Watch
From his lonely watch post Albert Camus asked who among us has not experienced exile yet still managed to preserve a spark of fire in their soul. "We're all alone," Natalia Sedova cried in exile on hearing of her husband Leon Trotsky’s affair with Frida Kahlo. In his novel Night Watch, Stephen Koch follows the incestuous love affair of David and Harriet, wealthy siblings watching the world from their solitary exile. Koch’s writing, Camus’s theories, and Trotsky’s affair all come back to exile and lead me to reflect on the human condition. From my own vantage point, my Night Watch, I will reflect on my questions of exile, writing, and the human condition.

Hamdy el Gazzar

From Egypt
"From Egypt" attempts to draw a cultural map of Egypt and the Arab world by profiling the artistic, literary, and political issues that affect the region via on-the-ground coverage of current events, publications, and the fight for freedom of expression.

Tarık Günersel

Wor(l)ds in Danger
Life is words in action, literature is action in words.

Humans are about to destroy their spaceship Earth. Some of them are aware of this and they try to change the course of events. Will they succeed? Will more humans be alarmed and do something?

Literature is vital and translators are messengers of world peace.

Though I shall focus on the literary scene in Turkey and its problems regarding freedom of expression, I shall not omit the other parts of our planet. Today local is global and vice versa.

Khet Mar

Tea House
In Burma if you want to hear about issues the newspapers can't talk about, you should go to a tea shop. Tea houses were where I used to meet with other activists, writers and artists, as well as where I built friendships. Within tea houses we talked about Burmese writers, literary trends we noticed, and, of course, politics. This online space attempts to emulate the conversations I enjoyed in Rangoonʼs tea houses.

Tienchi Martin-Liao

Blind Chess
During the Cultural Revolution, people were sentenced to death or outright murdered because of one wrong sentence. In China today writers do not lose their lives over their poems or articles; however, they are jailed for years. My friend Liu Xiaobo for example will stay in prison till 2020; even winning the Nobel Peace Prize could not help him. In prison those lucky enough not to be sentenced to hard labor play “blind chess” to kill time AND TO TRAIN THE BRAIN NOT TO RUST. Freedom of expression is still a luxury in China. The firewall is everywhere, yet words can fly above it and so can  our thoughts. My column, like the blind chess played by prisoners, is an exercise to keep our brains from rusting and the situation in China from indifference.

Mesfin Negash

Ethiopiques
Why does a country with her own unique alphabet and long history of writing persist to deny citizens the right to freedom of expression in this era of Expression? No other country in Africa may typify this paradox more than Ethiopia. As Leopold Senghor's famous collection of poems entitled "Ethiopiques" remained 'powerful and popular' so does the source of his intriguing title, Ethiopia, in her own ways. In "Ethiopiques," I share Ethiopian views on pertinent issues related to journalism, culture and, of course, the overarching subject of politics.

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

The Revolution Evening Post
Is it worth-while to focus on the last images and letters coming from the inside of the last living utopia on Earth? Is Cuba by now a contemporary country or just another old-fashioned delusion in the middle of Nowhere-America? A Cold-War Northtalgia maybe? Can we expect a young Rewwwolution.cu within that Ancien Régime still known as The Revolution? I would like to provoke more questions than answers.

Bina Shah

Pakistan Unveiled
Pakistan is a country of contradictions - full of promise for growth, modernity and progress, yet shrouded by political, social and cultural issues that undermine its quest for identity and integrity. My bimonthly column "Pakistan Unveiled" presents stories that showcase the Pakistani struggle for freedom of expression, an end to censorship, and a more open and balanced society.

Than Win Htut

Off-Screen
Though the video journalists of Democratic Voice of Burma provide daily news stories for Burma's media, what no one gets to see is what happens behind the camera, off screen. I ask them why they do what they do and what they see as they expose a country that has been under the shadow of dictatorships for decades.

Yaghoub Yadali

Under Eastern Eyes
"Enemy...terrorism...nuclear bomb...war." These words are often used by American media to describe Iran. The image the media presents is often hazy, incomplete, and distorted. The political and military aspects of my country are covered mainly in a negative light.

In Under Eastern Eyes (I have adopted the name from the novel Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad), I will write about those topics which American media either cannot or does not want to talk about. The emphasis will be on social and cultural aspects of Iran although, out of necessity, I will talk about politics, despite my despair.  

Nesreen Salem

A Thousand and One Cries
A Thousand and One Cries will use a literary edge to reflect on Middle Eastern cultural and political trends, paying special attention to the condition of women and other minorities in Egypt.

Dina Meza

Between Bullets and Censorship
Honduras has one of the world’s highest murder rates. It is also one of the most dangerous countries to practice journalism, ranking 129th out of 180 in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index. Journalists are regularly threatened, attacked, and killed for their work. The Honduran government fails to punish those who use violence against reporters, essentially granting them impunity. This space will be dedicated to examining the lack of protection for Honduran journalists exercising their profession. Topics will include the use of state-sponsored advertising as a mechanism to reward or punish publications, and censorship and self-censorship as hindrances to democratic progress.

Chalachew Tadesse

Double-Faced Ethiopia
This column’s topics will include literature, art, education, history, and political culture in Ethiopia, as well as society and politics in the Horn of Africa. Moreover, I will address the tribulations of journalists and the ill-fated constitutional right of freedom of expression under Ethiopia's deceptive authoritarian regime. I will try to be the voice of the voiceless, be it persecuted journalists at home or exiled journalists abroad. These themes will make Ethiopia's uniqueness and absurdities evident.

Michał Janczuk

Almost Europe
Belarus is called the "geographical center of Europe" by its dictator-president. It's true only if you situate the eastern border of Europe in the Ural Mountains, deep in Russia. I rather doubt we are the center of our continent - but we still could be its good border. Now we just need the simplest thing ever - to build a sustainable, democratic Western-style country after 70 years of Soviet occupation and 20 years under authoritarian regime. Piece of cake. But some of us still believe – it's always darkest before the dawn.

Ma Thida

Echoing Voice
Literature is an echoing voice of people's thought. Myanmar literature and media have suffered a lot along with people during five decades of censorship. The majority of Myanmar's population are voiceless, and many untold stories are yet to be discovered by local or international writers and journalists. Here let's try to find and listen to what problems people are feeling, thinking, and facing regarding freedom of expression in everyday lives in Myanmar.