In this in-depth interview, novelist Anita Desai discusses her childhood of writing and reading, her creative process over the years, her state of hereditary exile, and the complicated perspective on India and the West that it has afforded her.
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On January 9, 2014Amiri Baraka, poet, playwright and activist, passed away at the age of 79. A leading figure of the Black Arts movement, today we remember Baraka by sharing an interview Sampsonia Way published in 2011, after he came to read with Cave Canem at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.
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In this exclusive interview, Tienchi Martin-Liao sits down with her long-time friend and colleague, the celebrated exiled writer Liao Yiwu. They talked about literature, emigration, and politics. If they had tried to have this conversation in China, it could have been considered illegal.
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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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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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To mark the American debut of an anthology of contemporary Burmese poetry, Sampsonia Way reprints Khet Mar’s interview with editors James Byrne and poet Ko Ko Thett, in which they discuss the challenges of compiling the anthology, and Burma’s transition out of a culture of censorship.
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Ebullient and ever-interested in collaging and layering, in this interview the poet, novelist and playwright Chris Abani talks about his writing and editing processes, where he gets his ideas, why he’s never experienced writer’s block, and his many cross-discipline obsessions.
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