“It took about twelve and a half years to write Family Life, so it wasn’t so much that I prepared for that voice and did it, as if preparing for a role.” In this interview, celebrated author Akhil Sharma discusses his painstaking writing process and the careful construct of his latest novel.
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Tor is an online privacy tool that can provide digital safety to dissident writers around the world, by allowing for anonymity and a secure line to social media. This post first appeared on PEN Sweden’s Dissident Blog and was written by Deji Olukotun. It was published by IFEX on May 12, 2014.
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In this Exile Hangout, writer-in-residence Israel Centeno engages Venezuelan authors Liliana Lara, Juan Carlos Chirinos, and Juan Carlos Mendez Guedez. They reveal the realities of living overseas as Venezuelan writers and they expand upon what it means to truly live “in exile” within and outside their country of origin.
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Exiled writers Marina Nemat, Omid Fallahazad, Moniro Ravanipour, Shahrnush Parsipur, and Roya Hakakian talk via Google Hangout about risking imprisonment for their writing, repression against opposition writers, the government’s crackdown on free press, and the condition of writing in exile.
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In commemoration of Black History Month, Sampsonia Way recognizes the African-American authors who have contributed their transformative words to our pages, among them Chris Abani, Amiri Baraka, Toi Derricotte, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Nikki Giovanni, Angela Jackson, and Yusef Komunyakaa.
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Editorial cartoonist Gianfranco Uber (Italy) comments on the reported hanging of Iranian poet Hashem Shaabani at an unidentified Iranian prison.
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In this segment of The Writer’s Block, David Harris-Gershon discusses his writing process, the consequences he faced for publishing his memoir, What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, and writer’s responsibilities towards society.
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