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Vera B. Williams Reads from It Only Happens To Other People
When morning comes and they escort you to the maximum security prison, your last hope of release evaporates, and you are resigned to the completion of the process: sudden… More
Roxana Robinson Reads from Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng
As I followed the female guard, I breathed deeply the sweet night air. We walked around the main building, passed through a peeling and faded red gate with a… More
The Truth That Killed
The preview of my play before a restricted invited audience had been planned by the theatre management with two aims in view—to sound out the authorities and to seek… More
The Apocalypse According to Benedict
The special deference shown by the cardinal to his maidservant might have been interpreted by her as leave to take the initiative and request a few “brief moments” for… More
Roxana Robinson Reads from The Little School Tales of Disappearance and Survival
Last time I heard my full name it was at Army headquarters, the evening of the day I was kidnapped. The military man repeated it in a calm and… More
Kathy Park Hong Reads from “The Flowers of Hell” by Nguyen Chi Thien
In the Jungle Night a Bird CallsIn the jungle night a strange bird callsFollowed by a guard’s tripping shoe soundsA patrol flashlight beams here and thereFrom the cells come… More
Reading from The Taxi Project by Martha Kuwee Kumsa
I was released in September 1989 after a decade of torture and incarceration. Even though my imprisonment was limited to the radius of the prison compound—Ethiopia itself was a… More
Seriously Ill Uzbek Journalist Remains Detained
International human rights groups and free press organizations report that Kyrgyzstan-based Uzbek journalist Ulugbek Abdusalamov is being held in retaliation for reporting on human rights abuses in southern Kyrgyzstan. More
PEN Names New Director of World Voices Festival and Public Programs
PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization, named László Jakab Orsós Director of the World Voices Festival and Public Programs. Orsós… More
Flood Song
I strike a wet match on his wooden mind,/ stash my invitation behind his waterless eyes,/ and pencil in the first unmarked box More
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