An Interview with Hilary Masters, Pittsburgh Man of Letters
"Experimentation just for its own sake is—I don’t know—indulgent. Anything that strays from the typical kind of narrative makes me a little uneasy, unless there is a genuine connection with the narrator, with the story, with the subject." - Pittsburgh writer Hilary Masters
An Interview with Tienchi Martin-Liao, Independent Chinese PEN Centre President
"I hate this oppression. I hate those who deprive my colleagues their freedom of expression and basic human rights." - Tienchi Martin-Liao, president of Independent Chinese PEN Centre
An Interview with a Chinese Translator
"The effect of censorship on translation, it seems to me, is to take otherwise refreshing foreign articles and blend them harmoniously with the official propaganda." - An anonymous Chinese translator
Three Poems from The Land My Father Gave Me
Poet Dmitry Kuzmin on the Anti-Gay Government Campaign in Russia
"Most people in Russia don’t understand the concept of human rights. And Russian authorities support this view by underlining that the idea of gay rights is completely foreign and alien for Russia..." - Russian poet Dmitry Kuzmin
I Need Distractions all the Time: An Interview with Poet Chris Abani
"I don’t even know what black means. I’m black, middle-class Nigerian, but also half English. Does “black” mean black-Haitian or black working-class Jamaican? There is no blackness." - Nigerian poet Chris Abani
Cartoonists at Risk and their Defenders
"This may not be true in western societies, but in developing countries, you can’t find a single person who has more influence and more efficiency as a social change agent than a cartoonist." - CRNI co-founder Robert Russell
Having to Fight for It: An Interview with Poet/Musician Joy Harjo
"As an indigenous writer it’s more difficult to get your work legitimized because people don’t know who you are. One way is to play into or with stereotypes. People recognize the stereotypes." - Native American poet / musician Joy Harjo
Translating Bolaño: An Interview with Natasha Wimmer
"I’ve never been very good at slang and specific genre slang. There were all kinds of pitfalls in that section because I didn’t want it to sound hackneyed or falsely imitative." -Translator Natasha Wimmer
Bangladeshi Cartoonist Arifur Rahman on Calling a Cat “Mohammad”
"Radical Muslims felt that I had insulted Muhammad and Islam, and I was tortured several times both inside and outside of jail; I also received lots of death threats." -Bangladeshi cartoonist-in-exile Arifur Rahman
In anticipation of the coming new year, Sampsonia Way looks back at the most-read interviews of 2013. Ranging from a discussion with a Bangladeshi political cartoonist to an interview with a Creek Indian poet and musician, Sampsonia Way has continued to share the voices of writers, journalists, and artists from around the world.
Based on our readers’ preferences, it is time to revisit some of the most read interviews from the past twelve months. Click on the image to go to the original article.
