In this segment of The Writer’s Block, the Belgian novelist Ivo Victoria discusses how becoming a writer has made him a reader, how music is his biggest stylistic influence, and how he plays the ‘game between fact and fiction.’
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Booker-prize winner, Kiran Desai, talks with PEN International’s Sarah Clarke about threats to freedom of expression in India and the role of PEN. The interview was took place at PEN’s 79th Congress in Iceland in September 2013, where Desai spoke on behalf of the newly launched PEN Delhi Centre.
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In this segment of The Writer’s Block, the acclaimed Egyptian author and journalist Hamdy El-Gazzar discusses writing poetry, incorporating sex as a theme in his work, and the importance of letting the spirit of a text live in translation. El-Gazzar is also Sampsonia Way‘s Egypt columnist.
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This week we remember the influential publisher André Schiffrin who died in Paris on Sunday. In this interview from 2007 Schiffrin discusses his political and economic split with Random House, the experience of starting The New Press, and working with writers like Studs Terkel.
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The Nobel Laureate and British writer Doris Lessing, who died last week at age 94, authored 54 works, including the seminal piece The Golden Notebook. We look back at Lessing’s life with two clips: a fascinating Bill Moyers interview and a video of Lessing discussing her experiences as a writer.
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A discussion on craft with acclaimed Native American poet and musician Joy Harjo widens to include stories about her family and ancestors, writers’ block, the forced exile of Native Americans in the US, and what it takes to balance her “two lovers,” music and poetry.
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Iranian painter Nicky Nodjoumi left his country in 1980 after an exhibition of his work opened in Tehran. “[The authorities] saw the show and they labeled me as anti-revolution, anti-Khomeini, and anti-regime,” he says. He is now an established artist living in New York.
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