In October 2019, PEN Belarus started monitoring violations of rights in the cultural sphere. Since the stolen election in 2020 Belarus has experienced an unprecedented wave of repression against civil...
In November 2020, Kacharyna Andreyeva covered a demonstration honoring the memory of artist Raman Bandarenka, who was beaten to death during a protest. Thousands of people were arrested and Andrejeva...
Tatiyaas Filippova is a poet and photographer from Sakha Republic. In her work she gathers together different texts and photographs into a poetic set, the structure of which is built on rhythm. In her...
Irina Smagas text is a letter in the form of poetry which tells the story of missing a language you don’t know, and how alienation becomes home – the place where you spend most of your time.
Meat ties this epic poem by the Tatar poet Elvina Valieva together. The bitter taste of colonialism exists side by side with the love in the broth, and the fact that your home always remains home...
Wesam Almadani is a Palestinian writer, and human rights activist, who came to Norway as an ICORN writer. Almadani published two books – the novel The Body’s Schizophrenia (2020) and the poetry...
Ivars Šteinbergs is a poet, critic, and translator from Riga, Latvia. His second collection of poems Jaunība (Youth, 2022), published by Neputns, received the Annual Latvian Literature Award in 2023...
Aļesja Loseva is an author of Belarusian origin who was born in Latvia. The influence and temperament of the Latvian, Belarusian and Russian languages are intertwined in her poetic voice. In public...
These two poems are from the poetry collection The Funeral of a Magician by Anis Ghuneimah, winner of the first prize in the Young Writer of the Year 2017 competition, launched by the A.M. Qattan...
Hala Shrouf is a Palestinian writer based in Ramallah. She was born in Libya in 1978, and has lived between Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. She moved to Palestine in 1995. Shrouf studied English...
Guest editor Muhammad al-Zaqzouq contributes with two poems from the poetry collection The All-Knowing Betrayed Me. He is the winner of the Ali Khalili Prize for Poetry, within the Palestine Cultural...
By the young poet Hamed Ashour (born 1994), we publish the poems Open Heart and Simple Things from the poetry collection A Surgeon Experimenting on himself. Ashour was born in Gaza in 1994. He...
From the poetry collection I Looked for their Keys in the Locks by Ameer Hamad, first prize winner in the 2019 Young Writer Competition. Hamad was born in Jerusalem in 1992, and currently resides...
Two poems are selected for this issue number from the poetry collection Noon Poems in the Cobbler's Cart by Nidal Al-Faqaawi, winner of the first prize in the Young Writer of the Year 2015 competition...
Abdulla Peshew was born in 1946 in Erbil. Between 1970-1973 he worked as a teacher in Erbil. In 1973 he traveled to the Soviet Union (USSR) and studied at the Institute of Foreign Languages in...
