PAST PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES

EXILED WRITERS INK MENTORING AND TRANSLATION SCHEME - YEAR 1 (Arts Council funded)

Exiled Writers INK mentoring scheme

Are you a writer forced to live in exile?
Are you finding it hard to get recognition and published in the UK?
Exiled Writers INK is running a mentoring scheme to match writers in exile with well known writers in the UK. You will work together intensively over a year, leading to publications, readings and new opportunities. You do not have to have been previously published, or have a perfect level of English but you do need to be writing at a high level and ready to accept guidance and constructive criticism from your mentor. If you are interested, please send 3-5 poems or 2 short stories and a CV to:

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Exiled Writers Ink with the Poetry School

Refugee and exiled poets:

Exiled Writers Ink is pleased to announce an exciting creative writing course to be run by the respected Poetry School, London
The facilitator is Moniza Alvi, prize-winning published poet.
Perform your work at Foyles, Charing Cross Road.

Where? At the Poetry Café Studio, Poetry Café 22 Betterton Street, London WC2 (nearest tube: Covent Garden)

When? For weekly sessions from 27th January to 7th April 2006, Every Friday from 7.30 to 9.30

What? We shall explore the ever-important theme of exile. Study examples of work from a wide range of poets such as W.H.Auden, Nazim Hikmet, Mahmoud Darwish, Derek Walcott, Grace Nichols, Jackie Kay and George Szirtes.
Writing activities will be suggested and constructive feedback will be given within a supportive atmosphere.
Improve your technical skills.
Information about the UK poetry publishing world.
Performance: Perform your work at Foyles on Sunday 9th April at 3 pm. Actors Anna Carteret and Stella Maris will help you improve your performance skills.

How much? Free

Who? Exiled poets who want to develop their work in English.

To register, please send your details to:
Exiled Writers Ink, 31 Hallswelle Road, London NW11 ODH or
e-mail to Jennifer@exiledwriters.fsnet.co.uk

Funded by the Arts Council

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Another Land, Another Voice

This took place in May at the Soho Theatre and Writers Centre in collaboration with Index on Censorship. The place was packed! Panel themes were: The Literature of Exile, The Exilic Voice of Women Writers and Finding the Self and Creating a Home in a New Language.

Two workshops to generate creative activity also took place and the day ended with a recital which included performances by

• Sahira Hussain, singer and oud player,
• Tara Jaff, singer and harpist and
• Saido, singer
• Shirin Razavian, poet and
• Choman Hardi, poet.

EXILED WRITERS INK IN BOSNIA

'Writing Home' April 2009

was a theatre production created and acted by exiled and non-exiled writers from Bosnia and London. It brought together writers of different ethnicities and those who left with those who stayed. The production focused on the meaning of 'home' in times of war and its aftermath; about mythology and history, loss and exile; about make a place for oneself in and through writing.

The performances took place in Mostar and Tuzla at the Mostarski Teatar Mladih and Teatar Kabare Tuzla.

Seven performers were involved – three from London and four from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sofia Buchuck originates from Peru and now lives in London. Her work both musical and literary, reflects issues of diaspora and memory and celebrates popular and ancient culture of Latin America. She has recorded two CDs: ‘Girl of the Rain’ and ‘Violets’ and her collection of poetry is entitled ‘Orange Nights in Autumn’ (2008). She has also published ‘At the Other Side of America’ and ‘Latin Mermaids’.

Amna Dumpor, born in Mostar, completed a year of Drama Studio at the National Theatre of Mostar after which she studied Serbo-Croat linguistics and literature at the University of Mostar. However, the War curtailed her studies. She arrived in the UK in 1992 and gained a degree in Contemporary Business and Political Economy from the University of Westminster after which she gained a diploma in Refugee Studies from the University of East London. She works in a London primary school. In 1998 she published her first book of poetry Tears in the Heart in Mostar.

Sonja Juric from Mostar is a member of the Croatian Writers Association of Mostar. Her poetry is included in Let u TROstihu, published in Mostar, 2008 and in various web journals including ‘Knjigomat’.

Elvedin Nezirovic is from Mostar. His first published collection of poetry The Abyss was published in 2002. His poems and literary texts have been published in prestigious literary magazines across the former Yugoslavia. He has worked as a journalist for Radio X, Radio Free Europe, Radio Studio 88 and Grace magazine, Sarajevo. His latest collection is entitled The Beast from a Hotel Room.

Jasmin Saletovic from Tuzla is a poet. He is currently a student of electrical engineering at the University of Tuzla.

Edin Suljic, originally from Tuzla, is a film-maker who has made ‘Day of Oysters’. He is also a photographer, puppeteer, playwright and poet. He translated ‘Cry of Bosnia’ by Elvira Simic (1998, Genie Quest). He now lives in London.

Adnan Zetica is a young poet studying in the Faculty of Humanities in Mostar. His work appears in ‘Kad progovori tisina’ and in various web journals including ‘Metafora’ and ‘Poezin’.

Director: Ernst Fischer, a Creative Research Fellow at Roehampton University (2003). He has been actively involved in theatre and performance making for more than three decades and in a variety of roles and genres. He previously directed ‘And the City Spoke’ and ‘A Mouthful of Africa’ with Exiled Writers Ink.

'Writing Home' though by no means devoid of interpersonal tensions and logistical difficulties, was to my mind a very successful project overall. It created a framework for both, artistic and personal exchange between Bosnian poets of various religious and cultural affinities and, maybe even more importantly, between those writers, who had moved abroad to escape the ethnic troubles in the early 1990s and those, who, for various reasons, had stayed behind. By individually exploring the meaning and scope of the concept of ‘home’, the participants discovered much that united them and realised that feelings of guilt or envy that  some of them may have nurtured were exaggerated and largely inappropriate, considering the highly complex political issues and personal life histories involved. The writing was of a high standard throughout and the participants’ commitment and dedication to the project, on the whole, a great pleasure to witness.

Ernst Fischer, director.

Mostar                

Tuzla

Performance

Elvedin Mezirovic
Spotlight on Elvedin:
I am called Ragib and once upon a time I was a stonemason. It is already the three thousand nine hundred and sixty fourth day that I am like this, a monster and a cripple, dying slowly in my own body and at the hands of one who is secretly disgusted by me – my wife Vasvija. A landmine cut off my legs and mutilated my body, so I’m blind in one eye, as well as mute.
I am called Ragib and I rarely leave my house. My thirst for other people stopped long ago. An old pen with a mother of pearl cap is my only link with the rest of the world. I speak through it and thus distinguish myself from the dead silence of objects and walls. With its help I can be what God is not allowing me to be – a human being. I am Ragib
Light off on Elvedin, light on on group
Various voices:  Here I ... I ... I ... I am ... I ... I ... I am ... I am a plural noun
Light off on group, light on on Elvedin
 I am the one on whose window sill a flower wilted this morning. I have one eye left, but have no tears to water it; a well inside me has dried up and so, though it has been given to me to suffer, I am forbidden to cry.
Yes, I am called Ragib and you must have heard of me if you have ever walked down the alley. I don’t know how to speak, so I write down what can’t come out of my mouth. I don’t go anywhere and I don’t show myself to anyone, that way my pain is smaller, since it has not been touched by others.
My name is Ragib and since I became a cripple, I have not dreamt. I am not afraid to go to sleep, but I am afraid to wake up; and like that – forever – one of my eyes looks into this world and the other into the World Beyond.
I am called Ragib, the one whose wife cheated on him yesterday. During the war I lost my legs, but in peace I grew horns; don’t ask me if I know which curse lies heavier on me.
I am called Ragib. I am a stonemason, who cuts words with his hands – words of stone.

They Follow my Every Step
Edin Suljic

They follow my every step. They know me well.
All my mistakes, all the things I loved. They know all my secret shortcuts.
They turn up at the right corner long before I get there. And I don’t try to run away.
How could I? After all, I too know them well.
I fed them. I got drunk with them night after night.
We sat around a table. I looked into their eyes.
I held their hands. Some I kissed, many I held in my arms.
And I betrayed them, many a time.
So I wait, knowing they are waiting.
I hope they will come out of the shadows.
But they don’t. They won’t come closer.
They wouldn’t let me smell their perfume
or inhale a wisp of their cigarette’s smoke.
Like this, we remain forever locked in;
they who never leave me, I, who never let go of them.
Most of all I fear you, my love.
You know every hollow under my skin; you know when I breathe out.
You could stop my heart with one touch ... but you don’t ...
You just lay there at night, next to me, under our blanket,
encircling every bend of my body.
There we remain forever in waiting.
I, who is waiting for your kiss, for a blow,
and you, who is waiting for my hope to fade away.
But the blow doesn’t come and the hope doesn’t fade.

The Year is 1992
Amna Dumpor
The year is 1992. Still vivid in my memory, I can see my dad playing chess in the courtyard during the short cease fire. I can see my mum, going about her usual business of preparing dinner. I can see an empty and deserted street, a simple reminder that nothing is the same anymore. I see myself suddenly lost in my own town, my own life. The air is filled with that special smell nostalgic smell, which is usually associated with memories of childhood, the first kiss and first love; all those memories which are now slowly diminishing in the presence of overwhelming fear and uncertainty, threatening me with oblivion.                                                                                                                                                  Leaving my hometown, I can see the distant lights and the heavy red clouds hanging over my beloved city. I can see the buildings disappear behind a wall of dust, and then the curtain drops – I can see nothing.

When I open my eyes, I see a road stretching ahead of me; I am lost again and I ask myself: “who am I if I don’t have my heart and my soul with me? Did I leave myself behind and where is this road taking me, to nowhere or to new beginnings and a new life?” I shall find out and I will – who knows – maybe – some day – return.

NO LINE HERE

I am starting to feel alone
Sofia Buchuck

I am starting to feel alone in here,
the only one in this wintry house,
crushing my body in the arms of silence.
I am so insignificant in the face of this war.
Mother smiles at me from the mirror,
you, my sister, left behind.
Everything has the perfume of dust.
The purple violets are not flowering yet;
I smell baked biscuits in the emptiness.
The phone rang a week ago;
it was you leaving this country
in tears and broken shouts.
Ten years of immigration nightmare.
Brutal endings;
the cherries in the market stare,
red with grief.
Millions of kilometers start to divide us
more and more every day.
I need to pack your luggage,
resting full of dreams at my feet;
love letters, unfinished,
years of court cases to be saved;
they finally die poisonous and heavy.
I am trying to pack your heartbeats,
collecting them one by one.
I’ll send them to Peru

with the last breath of cherries

 

On Today’s Day
Jasmin Saletovic

On today’s day, one hundred years ago, someone sighed an empty sigh
thinking that no-one before him, and certainly no-one after him would sigh such an empty sigh;
in the eye sockets of a hangman’s noose his sigh got lost squeezing out unprepared screams into the trenches, the last drops of glucose from the muscles of craftsmen and the last ruddiness from painters’ canvases;
the domes of churches were too small to fit all the angels underneath,
the minarets of mosques were too low for sighting the rings of Saturn,
too blunt to prickle the soles of self-proclaimed revolutionaries
and too real to stretch the springs of timepieces;
deep in folklore my name is carved
and this boulevard
that’s my death squad
and these pavements
they are my observatories
and this snow
that’s my ashes

 

Sticking to my Soul
Sonja Juric

Sticking
to my soul: a worn-out dress,
a knight’s armour,
is growing ever heavier,
becoming unbearable –
deceit.

Somewhere
behind, hidden and far away,
I am barely breathing –
waiting, doubting.

Between
the two of us, desire signals
for one of us to stop –
existing.

I am taking off my tired
dress of life;
a thousand masks fall
to the ground.

My soles are still white
despite treading hot sand
toward the sun
I wanted to go

I have left.
Twelve thirteen, it showed
Adnan Zetica

Twelve thirteen, it showed;
on the cover an engraving: For fifteen years of work

The technical characteristics of the watch are to tick on a heartbeat;
it can work for forty-eight hours without a pulse, no batteries needed

A good strap and brand
Impart it a specific material value

Everyone took something: boots, a water bottle, a jacket, and I took off the watch –
the corpse from whose wrist I removed it had been lifeless less than two days

I took it to a watchmaker; he examined it and said everything was alright
I put it around my wrist, but it won’t work – around his, it ticks

I even thought to remodel it,
so, instead of on a heartbeat, it would work on batteries, but it wouldn’t

I take it to another watchmaker – the story is repeated: on his heartbeat it ticks,
but on mine it can’t, as if you weren’t human, he said to me

Audiences

Interview with Tuzla TV

Edin Suljic translated the work by writers living in Bosnia.

Funded by the European Cultural Foundation

A Mouthful of Africa
Exiled Writers Ink: part of Word from Africa

Thursday 7 June 2007 at 7 pm
Oxford House Theatre, Derbyshire Street, London E2 6HG
Nearest tube: Bethnal Green

painting by Ze Tubia

'A Mouthful of Africa' is a collaborative theatre production focusing on stories of African political, social and edible food. The African exiled writer/performers portray the ambivalent imagery of memories of home food and yearning in the place of exile. Their concerns of the personal interact with the political significance of food in areas disrupted by war and migration, with edible food being an integral part of the production!

There will be post-performance discussion and an opportunity to enjoy an African buffet.

The exiled writers and poets are:
Handsen Chikowore, Shona speaking poet from Zimbabwe,
Shereen Pandit, journalist and prize-winning fiction writer from South Africa,
Said Hussein, Somali story-teller and translator,
Tsehay Alemayehu from Ethiopia, who writes fiction in both Amharic and English.

Producer: Isabelle Romaine Director: Ernst Fischer

Cost: £10 to include food and £5 concessions.
PLEASE BOOK IN ADVANCE BY SENDING A CHEQUE MADE PAYABLE TO EXILED WRITERS INK at 31 Hallswelle Road, London NW11 0DH www.oxfordhouse.org.uk

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AND THE CITY SPOKE:
EUROPEAN EXILED VOICES PROJECT

Kindly funded by the European Cultural Foundation as well as: The British Council Warsaw, British Council Brussels, Polish Cultural Institute London, Italian Cultural Institute London and CIES, Ferrara, Italy.

photo by Marta Niccolai

This is a project which will involve refugee and exiled writers who have found exile in new European cities - Warsaw, Bologna, London and Brussels. An exciting, imaginative production around the theme of the writer/actors' physical, spiritual and emotional relationship to their new spaces, will be performed in The Space at the Hampstead Theatre, Swiss Cottage, London on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th October.

In addition, a seminar on the theme of European Exiled Voices will take place on the afternoon of Saturday 30th October. In April 2005, the writers will travel to Warsaw and to Ferrara to perform and to engage with local people and students in workshops.

The Venue:

The Space
Hampstead Theatre
Eton Avenue
London NW3
Station: Swiss Cottage
Tickets: £10, concs: £6 (asylum seekers & senior citizens) incl. Saturday panel
Box office Tel 0207 722 9301

Exiled Writers Ink in Warsaw:

Exiled Writers Ink in Gdynia:

Active in culture and the arts as well as the media, and with an impressive track record in education since 1954, the European Cultural Foundation is Europe’s only independent, non-national and pan-European cultural foundation. Running its own programmes and awarding grants keep it close to the grassroots cultural sector, and make it a credible advocate of strong cultural policies for Europe.
For further information: www.eurocult.org

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Exiled Writers Ink! with Horn of Africa Women's Association theatre

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Breaking The Silence:
Somali Women Speak Out

FUNDED BY ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND
Breaking the Silence is a powerful and emotional work of experimental interdisciplinary theatre especially created for Refugee Week by Exiled Writers Ink! with Somali Women from the Horn of Africa Women's Association in collaboration with Evlynn Sharp and Dictynna Hood.
Two performances only!
Followed by discussion
Friday 20th June 2003
1.00 to 2.30
Soho Theatre and Writers Centre, 21 Dean Street, London W1
£ 5 and £2 unemployed refugees
Tickets from 31 Hallswelle Road, London NW11 ODH
Tube: Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road
and
Saturday 21st June 2003
7.00 pm
Hampstead Theatre, The Space, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London NW3
£ 7 and £3 unemployed refugees
020-7722 9301 - Box office
Tube: Swiss Cottage

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Peeling the Skin of Time
Peeling the Skin of Time is a work of experimental theatre which was devised especially for Refugee Week 2002 by writers form Cyprus, Iran, Kurdistan and Bangladesh. It is an exploration of internal and external landscapes and depicts the excitement and commotion of a society made up of people from elsewhere and was performed at the Arcola and New End Theatres, London in June 2002.

© Abol Froushan

ACROSS THE DIVIDE PROJECT

photos by Miriam Frank

The first event will take place at the Jewish Museum, Camden Town on 1st September at 7 pm and is entitled 'Gaining an Insight into the Other' with Ghada Karmi, Oz Shelach, Leah Thorn and Rabhi Al Madhoun with oud player and singer, Sahira Hussain. £5 & £4 EWI Members and Jewish Museum Friends. Booking in advance is essential: 020-7284 1997. We shall also be organising similar sessions with and for Muslim organisations.

A one-day creative discussion and writing workshop with lunch for Jews, Israelis, Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians set in the Jewish Museum, Camden Town and at the Somerset House Islamic Exhibition 'Heaven on Earth', will take place on Sunday 26th September facilitated by Leah Thorn and Ali. Registration in advance is essential: 020-7284 1997.

The launch of 2 innovative publications will take place on 11th November 2004 - the 'Across the Divide' booklet of literature and the Multi Exposure visual arts publication 'What Remains to be Seen'.

Exiled Writers Ink with the New North London Synagogue

Across the Divide Project
Fact and Fiction in Narrative

Palestinian writer: Samir El Youssef Novella contributor to ‘Gaza Blues’, published 2004 in conversation with novelist: Linda Grant - Winner of Orange Prize for Fiction, reading from ‘Suppose a City’ to be published in 2005.

Chaired by Matthew Reisz, Editor of the Jewish Quarterly.

Tuesday 5th October 2004 at 8 pm

New North London Synagogue
80 East End Road, London N2

Cost: £6
BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL
To book: send cheque payable to Exiled Writers Ink
Miriam Frank, 27 Duncan Terrace, London N1 8BS

Funded by: Awards For All and The Kessler Foundation

Across the Divide 3

Aiming to bring together Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs and all other directly affected groups/individuals to develop ways of 'Writing Across the Divide'.

8 Creative Writing Workshops
on Thursdays 6.30 to 8.30 pm
from 15th Jan 2004
Diorama Arts Centre, 34 Osnaburgh Street, London NW1 3ND

Free plus Refreshments!
Register NOW!
Please contact Exiled Writers Ink! jennifer@exiledwriters.fsnet.co.uk and 020-8458 1910 to register.
Funded by Awards For All and The Kessler Foundation

Across the Divide 2: Writing in the Face of Conflict
(developing the impetus of: Across the Divide: Palestinian and Israeli Writers Speak Out)

With writers: Raba'i Madhoun and Assaf Gavron
followed by mixed facilitated creative discussion and writing workshop groups around roots, culture, identity, religion, anger etc.

Plenary session

Refreshments

Sunday 8th June 2003, from 2.00 to 5.00
at The Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research
18-20 Stanhope Place, London W2
(nearest tube: Marble Arch)

Booking in advance is essential:
£ 5 and £3 for unemployed refugees
Please make cheques payable to:
Exiled Writers Ink!
31 Hallswelle Road, London NW11 ODH

Across the Divide:
Palestinian and Israeli Writers Speak Out

Sunday 6th April 2003, 7.00 – 10.00 pm
SOAS, Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, Thornhaugh Street,
Russell Square, London WC1

Chairs: Amanda Hopkinson, Arts England & Moris Farhi MBE, Vice-President International PEN, Savyon Liebrecht, Kamal Kadoura tbc, Assaf Gavron, Samir El-Youssef,Gilad Atzmon, Ghada Karmi

Discussion Forum:
Dafna Dori and Band,Wissam Boustany, flautist

April 6th, 2003: the Iraqi war was still in full flow, Blair and Bush were sidelining into pushing for the ‘Road Map’ to peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The chasm between Jew and Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian, gaped like a black hole. But in between the chasm and the pain, nearly 200 people arrived at the Brunei Gallery, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, to listen, to talk, to share, to lay down the girders for a bridge ‘Across the Divide’.

Organised by Exiled Writers Ink! the evening was nothing if not controversial. Exiled Jews from Iraq mingled with Algerian writers, refugees from Bosnia and Saudi Arabia, Jews from London, Israelis, and Kurds from the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Chaired by Amanda Hopkinson from the Arts Council England, the audience were treated to a glittering array of readings, instrumental pieces and songs, offered by Israelis and Palestinians, willing to share a platform and sit together in peace and friendship.

In the second half Moris Farhi MBE, Vice-President International PEN, chaired readings and an all too brief discussion, which continued long after the darkened halls of SOAS had been left far behind.
The range and depth of work, which the audience were treated to, matched perfectly the eagerness expressed in multiple exchanges in the interval and a deep desire to tear down the barriers, which have arisen between these two great Semitic peoples.

Judith Elkan, a child psychotherapist, posed the question, “Isn’t it time for all of us to say sorry?” Her message was one of repair and reconciliation, echoing the brave work in South Africa, after the fall of the apartheid system. An active member of the Israel/Palestinian Peace Coalition, her message was one of hope that bitterness and hatred can be overcome in these two societies.

Wissam Boustany, the inspirational and internationally acclaimed flautist from Lebanon, created for us an improvisation on the wind as a symbol of his desire to sit down with his Israeli neighbours and build a world where politics no longer exerts a destructive influence. Playing in total darkness, Boustany transported us on the magical wind of his beautiful music to a world where peace and friendship have swept away the pain of conflict.

By contrast Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli jazz saxophonist and writer, challenged us to reject the idea of a two state solution. His vision was one country, Palestine, based on equality and democracy, where all the people of the region, Jews, Palestinians, Christians, Druze, Bedouin, will live together and share the ancient land. Through his music Atzmon works to break down the barriers between Israelis and Arabs. To watch his interaction with Boustany, who sat close and constantly patted his shoulder in agreement and friendship, was to feel that those barriers can and will fall one day, whether one or two states emerge.

Samir El-Youssef, a well-known Palestinian writer, read the first chapter of a novella, which will be published in England this year, in the same book as several short stories by the Israeli writer, Etgar Keret. The writers and their publisher, David Paul, believe that such a combined effort could reveal the extent of similarities in the new forms of narratives emerging from both Israeli and Palestinian writers of a new generation.

It is just this lack of narrative which urges Ghada Karmi to write. A Palestinian who has made her home in London, Karmi points out that the world does not really feel the pain and hopes of the Palestinians because of the lack of narratives emerging from her people. Just as the Jews wrote so extensively about the Holocaust and informed the world of their terrible sufferings, so Karmi exhorts the Palestinians to emerge from the shadows and create the narratives which will tell the world their story. Reading from her memoir, ‘In search of Fatima: a Palestinian story,’ Karmi leads the way which hopefully will be followed by many others.

And finally Assaf Gavron, a young Israeli, army veteran and supporter of his country, while also keen to seek peace with his neighbours, read from his book which does not address politics, pain or suffering. Instead his story is about ordinary people, Israelis, who work in a removals firm in New York and get into trouble with the Ukraine mafia. Perhaps Gavron’s message is simply, in troubled times a writer must find his own voice and write what speaks to him. There is room for many kinds of artistic voices in the struggle to build a bridge.

In between the readings and discussion Dafna Dori and her band provided songs from the Yemen and the Middle East to flavour the whole evening with the sound of love amongst ancient villages and the olive groves.

A truly momentous evening, which will ring in our hearts and minds for many evenings to come.

Exiled Writers Ink! have planned a series of future events to include an afternoon in June where participants will have a further opportunity to meet and develop dialogue with an Israeli and Palestinian writer, as well as join a writing workshop to give voice to issues raised. In the long term, a series of workshops are being planned to allow the different groups to write together in facilitated workshops with a view to producing a publication at the end.

Across the Divide 2

Exiled Writers Ink in association with Islington Enterprise Agency
invite you to gain an insight into the 'Other', 'Get Creative' and improve your technique.

Poetry writing workshops
Welcome to: Muslims, Jews, Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians, Israelis and all exiled writers from the Middle East

5 TWO HOUR SESSIONS WEEKLY ON WEDNESDAYS FROM

6th September 2006, 11AM – 1PM
Islington Enterprise Agency
64 Essex Road, London N1 8LR (Angel tube)

Travel and lunch expenses available for asylum seeker participants

The workshops will be run by Lynette Craig who holds a Masters Degree in Writing and whose poetry is published in magazines and most recently in a pamphlet collection entitled BURNING PALACES published by Flarestack.

If you wish to join these free workshops, you need to register with Exiled Writers Ink Jennifer@exiledwriters.fsnet.co.uk

Please send your name and contact details - 10 places only!

TRAINING

FOR REFUGEE WEEK EXILED WRITERS INK IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MEDICAL FOUNDATION FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE PRESENT:

BORDER WORDS:

4 Book Group Evenings FOR Refugee Week at Borders Bookshop, 203 Oxford Street, London W1D 2LE, at 7 pm

* Buy the book at Borders Bookshop
* Read the book
* Discuss the book with the writer and other people
* Coffee and refreshments
* Free
* Help with buying the books for asylum seekers
* Come to one book group evening or as many as you wish
* Let us know you are coming

Monday 9th June: Hamid Ismailov - The Railway, translated by Robert Chandler, published Vintage, 2007
Hamid Ismailov is an Uzbek journalist and writer who was forced to flee Uzbekistan in 1992. His works are banned in Uzbekistan. He has published numerous books in Uzbek, Russian, French, German, Turkish and other languages.

Wednesday 11th June: Yang Lian - RIDING PISCES: POEMS FROM FIVE COLLECTIONS, pub Shearsman, June 2008
After the Tiananmen Square massacre, Yang Lian became a poet of exile in New Zealand and Australia. He is one of China's most prominent poets.

Monday 16th June: Haifa Zangana - Women on a Journey between Baghdad and London, translated by Judy Cumberbatch, published Texas University Press, 2006
Haifa Zangana is a novelist and journalist and former prisoner of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime.

Thursday 19th June: Sulaiman Addonia - The Consequences of Love, Chatto and Windus, July 2008
This is his debut novel. Sulaiman Addonia is a writer and academic who lived in Sudan and Saudi Arabia before coming to the UK in 1990 as an Eritrean rugee.

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REFUGEE WEEK: FREE EVENT
Tuesday 19th June 2007 at 7 pm
Exiled Writers Ink with Borders Bookshop Islington

Borders Bookshop in the N1 Shopping Centre, Parkfield Street, Islington N1 0PS
Tube: Angel

WRITING ACROSS BORDERS

Gillian Slovo
South African born Gillian Slovo is the author of ten novels as well as a family memoir, Every Secret Thing. Her novels include Red Dust, winner of the RFI Temoin du Monde prize which has also been made into a film, and Ice Road which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her new novel, to be published in 2008, is about what it is to be a foreigner in Britain.

Exiled Poets:

Iranian born: Shadab Vajdi
She has had numerous collections published in Persian. Closed Circuit (translated into English from the poet`s Persian works by Lotfali Khonji), was published in London and Boston (Forest Books, 1989). Collections of her work have also been translated into German and Swedish.

Faziry Mafutala, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo
He has lived in the UK since 1996, having had to flee becasue he was under threat. This arose as a result of becoming involved in the political activities of the main opposition party whilst working at the Ministry of Education in DRC. His poetry is inspired by the story-telling tradition.

Chaired by: Carole Angier

The biographer of Jean Rhys and Primo Levi. She is working on a new book, and writing and translating refugees' and asylum seekers' stories.

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An Evening For Refugee Week

Exiled Writers Ink invites you to an evening of the senses for refugee week:

Forced To Leave
Poetry and music with eritrean restaurant dinner

Wednesday 14th June 2006 at 7.00 pm
Zigni House, 330 Essex Road, London N1 3PB
(At street level, nearest tube: Angel, buses: 38, 56, 73, 341, 476)

Mahmood Jamal launching his latest collection 'Sugar-Coated Pill’. His other books include Modern Urdu Poetry and Silence Inside a Gun's Mouth. He is a progressive poet, filmmaker and translator who writes in Urdu and English. He has been published in a wide range of anthologies, had his work broadcast on radio and TV, and been translated into several languages.

Ziba Karbassi (Iran) one of the rising stars of Iranian poetry, Ziba Karbassi left Iran in 1989. She has published five collections of poetry in exile: With a Broken Star in my Heart, Scorpion under the Pillow, The Sea will Drown, Jizz and Collage.

Alfredo Cordal (Chile) is a performance poet and playwright. He has written The Last Judgement, The Investiture of El Dorado, Smoking Mirror and A Passion in Buenos Aires. His poetry has appeared in a range of publications.

Senait Gebremichael (Eritrea): in hommage to the revered Eritrean poet: Reesom Haile

Amna Dumpor (Bosnia): left Mostar in 1992. Her collection of poetry is entitled Tears in the Heart

Berhane Gebrekidan: Eritrean musician

Michele Celeste: alternative songwriter and playwright

£12 per person - traditional Eritrean buffet, vegetarian and meat (halal) dishes - Eritrean coffee ceremony and coffee

Tickets must be booked in advance!

£12 per person: traditional Eritrean buffet, vegetarian and meat (halal) dishes.
Eritrean coffee ceremony and coffee - Free copy of 'Exiled Ink!' magazine.
Some free places for newly-arrived asylum seekers.
Please send cheque payable to Exiled Writers Ink to: Jennifer Langer, 31 Hallswelle Road, London NW11 0DH