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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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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Hamdy el-Gazzar remembers Egypt’s “ambassador of the poor” and poet of the January 25 Revolution. Ahmed Fouad Negm, the venerated poet and outspoken critic of power, died on December 3, a few days before being awarded the Prince Claus Award. Included is Negm’s poem “Mother Egypt”.
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Hamdy el-Gazzar remembers Egypt’s “ambassador of the poor” and poet of the January 25 Revolution. Ahmed Fouad Negm, the venerated poet and outspoken critic of power, died on December 3, a few days before being awarded the Prince Claus Award. Included is Negm’s poem “Mother Egypt”.
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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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A poignant message delivered by the poet Maya Angelou on behalf of the American people in memory of Nelson Mandela who died on December 5.
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