Watch a short film on the acclaimed “people’s poet,” Ahmed Fouad Negm, recipient of the 2013 Prince Claus Award. A master poet, fearless social and political critic, Negm died on December 3, a few days before the award ceremony.
Read more...
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.’
Read more...
“Stories were so important in the world, and I wanted to make up some of these stories.” The 2013 Nobel Lecture in Literature this year is replaced by a pre-recorded video conversation with Alice Munro, Nobel Laureate in Literature.
Read more...
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.
Read more...
Shezanne Cassim, an American citizen, is being held in a maximum-security prison in the United Arab Emirates after posting a satirical YouTube video. He is the first foreign national to be charged with the country’s draconian cybercrimes decree.
Read more...
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.
Read more...
In this video, the Cuban activist Yoani Sánchez delivers an exciting talk at Stanford University highlighting the significance technology and social media have in empowering the Cuban citizenry. The was event hosted by the Program on Liberation Technology at CDDRL.
Read more...
