Set in a post-Rupture steampunk world, A Winter’s Promise and The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos tell the story of Ophelia, a member of the Anima ark who can animate objects. Unassuming, clumsy, and shy, Ophelia has two major talents and life passions. First, she is a superb object “reader,” i.e., she can view … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: A Winter’s Promise/ The Missing of Clairdelune
To be Kurdish is to be perpetually in exile. Originally a nomadic population in the mountainous region of southwest Asia, they fell victim to the nationalization movements of the post Ottoman era, their domain divided between Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Syria. Not considered full citizens anywhere they have been considered traitors, terrorists and undesirables … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Kurdish poets Kajal Ahmad, Sherko Bekas, and Abdulla Pashew
Exiled Writers Ink brings together writers from repressive regimes and war-torn situations, providing a space for writers to be heard. Exiled Writers Ink develops and promotes the creative literary expression of refugees, migrants and exiles, encourages cross-cultural dialogue and advocates human rights through literature and literary activism. The following poets have all been supported and promoted … Continue reading Literature of Exile: the poets of Exiled Writers Ink
“I am a Haitian exile who has never left Haiti, and Haiti has never left me. For many years, my imagination has linked me to my native land. Poems, novels, theater–these have always been the media allowing me to recreate an intimate relationship with the Haitian land. Imagination and lyricism cannot be silent during the … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Haiti’s Jean Métellus and René Depestre
Many of the earliest poems known, from the ancient world, deplore the pain of exile. Whether it is the highly stylized verse of the Arab world, or the oral recitation of Western Saharan, exiles and refugees from all parts of the world have shared their experiences of grief, loss and homesickness through poetry. With so … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Poetry (part 1)
One of the tragedies of the Armenian genocide is that there are still those who deny it happened. Beginning in 1914, the Ottoman authorities in Anatolia deported and killed over a million and a half ethnic Armenians. Although Turkey continues to deny it, the genocide against the Armenians is now generally recognized worldwide. Twenty-nine countries … Continue reading Literature of Exile: The Armenian Genocide
“It is boundlessly difficult to be a stranger. Your usual ways of behaving bear no fruit: if your habits are not fit for purpose, you might as well be a wheel off its axle, alone over and over again.” “I am a stranger at home, and I am nobody abroad.” A common trope in folklore … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Hamid Ismailov and Exile as Folktale
Today I am handing over guest editor duties to Turkish author Kaya Genc. Thank you Kaya for this thoughtful piece! Exile wasn’t a choice for Turkish dissidents of the twentieth century. It was a necessity. Turkish literature’s luminaries, from the poet Nâzım Hikmet to the novelist Halide Edip Adıvar, lived abroad because autocrats who ruled … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Şavkar Altınel
“The invisibility in which we live next to one another is appalling" Perhaps the only thing more painful than leaving a beloved country behind is to realize that one's former country no longer exists. Emigres from the former Yugoslavia find themselves in this perplexing, and bewildering predicament: are they now merely Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian? If, … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Dubravka Ugrešić
"…where we come from the greatest achievement is to leave.” Arguably one of the richest traditions in exile literature is that of Cuban Americans. Given the strong economic and cultural ties between the two countries before Castro's revolution in 1959, it was hardly surprising that so many Cubans who fled the Communist takeover made the … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Cuba in the fiction of Cristina Garcia, Ana Menendez, and Achy Obejas
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 