For Chinese activists government restrictions on their rights to move and travel are clear: once you’re in, you can’t get out, and once you’re out you can’t get in. Tienchi Martin-Liao highlights the cases of Li Jianhong and others who have tried to break through the “besieged fortress”.
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Ranging from a discussion with Bangladeshi political cartoonist Arifur Rahman to an interview with Creek Indian poet and musician Joy Harjo, in 2013 Sampsonia Way continued its mission of sharing the essential voices of writers, journalists, and artists from around the world.
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We look back at the most-read columns of 2013, featuring contributions from Tarik Günersel (Turkey), Bina Shah (Pakistan), Khet Mar (Burma), Israel Centeno (Venezuela), Hamdy el-Gazzar (Egypt), Tienchi Martin-Liao (China), Horacio Castellanos Moya (El Salvador), and Yaghoub Yadali (Iran).
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Independent Chinese PEN Center president, Tienchi Martin-Liao, reflects on the five-year anniversary of imprisonment of dissident writer and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, his wife’s prolonged, Kafkaesque house arrest, the calls for solidarity from Chinese human rights activists, and the power of words.
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The poem “Overture” is a “statement with a wish,” writes Tarık Günersel. He shares his short poem in 32 languages, including English and the Turkish original, with translations provided by fellow writers and PEN members from around the world. Günersel is PEN Turkey president.
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In the wake of a recent wave of arrests aimed to smother free speech in China, Tienchi Martin-Liao examines the laws most frequently used to charge dissidents and influential social media voices, and how they’ve been modified to include new offenses.
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In the first edition of Sampsonia Way‘s interview series with free speech defenders, PEN Turkey president Tarik Günersel sat down with us to discuss Turkey, language, and the establishment of World Poetry Day.
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