Egyptian writer and columnist Hamdy El-Gazzar talks about writing a novel, specifically his novel Secret Pleasures, as a way to discus what is “happening and happened in Egypt since the Kefaya movement appeared in 2004.”
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The week’s top news on freedom of expression, journalists in danger, artists in exile, and banned literature. Featured this week: imprisoned Bahraini activist Zainab al-Khawaja releases audio message, and German-Iraqi Abbas Khider wins Literature in Exile Prize.
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Celebrated exiled poet Liao Yiwu performs his poem, “Massacre,” forcing open the memory and aftermath of the Tiananmen Square killings of 1989. He follows this reading with a musical performance with his singing bowls.
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A new amendment to the Offenses Code of Russia threatens the LGBT community. We interview Dmitry Kuzmin, an openly gay poet and publisher living in Moscow, about the political, cultural, and literary impacts this law could have.
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Sampsonia Way magazine and City of Asylum/Pittsburgh invite you to raise your voice in favor of funding the National Endowment for the Arts.
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As the growing non-native population of catfish causes “ecological holocaust” in Cuba’s waters, the government advises Cubans to “Eat up!” But many Cubans find catfish unpalatable, with some choosing to buy the cheap fish to feed their pets instead.
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As the pro-government ATV Channel in Turkey censures a cubist painting by Picasso, Tarık Günersel thanks the group of American actors and other intellectuals for criticizing the new oppressive regime in Turkey, which he calls “Erdocracy,” a version of Islamofascism.
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