ICORN Writers: A - B - C - D - E

Click on the alphabetical list to read the writers' biographies.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Svetlana Alexievich

Born in the Ukraine, Svetlana is an ICORN Guest Writer currently hosted by the City of Gothenburg. She is an award-winning author whose works have been the basis for documentary films focusing on witnessing and national crisis. Her most recent book is Voices from Chernobyl .

Salah At-Tarjuman

. . . is a pseudonym for a current ICORN Guest Writer whose identity cannot be revealed at this time. We hope that we will be able to present this person's real name and writing credentials in the near future. Please check back.

Soudabeh Alishahi

Soudabeh Alishahi grew up in Iran and worked as a high school teacher for many years. Her short stories focused on controversial subjects such as women's rights and were consequently censored in Iran.

In 2001 Soudabeh Alishahi became Oslo's first City of Refuge Guest Writer. She is currently working on a new novel.

Photo: Lars Aarønæs

 

Manal Al-Sheikh

Poet from Iraq. Al-Sheikh has been a very active participant in the Arab Union of Writers since 1993, and has published collections of her own poetry as well as editing an anthology of modern Iraqi poetry.  Manal Al-Sheikh is from Nineveh in northern Iraq, and has a degree in English translation from the College of Arts at Mosul University. She has freelanced for a number of local newspapers, as well as the She'riat Magazine in Libya. Al-Sheikh participated in all sessions of the Annual Mosul University Festival of Creativity, as well as in several forums specializing in Iraqi fiction in Baghdad, three consecutive sessions of the Mirbad Festival of Poetry, and the Iqamat Ibdaeiya (Creative Residencies) event in Algeria.  She has published poetry and essays in several Iraqi and international Arabic newspapers. Her first book, “Inhirafut-tawabeet” (“The Deviation of Coffins”), was published by the Iraqi Union of Writers in Nineveh in 1996. In 2007, she edited and published “Umaraur-ruaa” (“Princes of Imaginative Visions”), an anthology of modern Iraqi poetry, and published “Assfar Alo’zlah” (“Books of Seclusion”)  in Egypt in 2008. A collection of poetic narrative titled “Kadmu Dhaheratin Mukaddada” (“Biting Through a Chopped Moon”) is to be published in Syria in 2009, and “Belnokta elhamraa tahta eynhi elyousrah” (“With a red dot under his left eye”) is also forthcoming. Manal Al-Sheikh is currently the ICORN Guest Writer of Stavanger City of Refuge. You can listen to an interview with Al-Sheikh here, and hear her read her poem Pennylessness here. You can also read an interview in Norwegian here .

Faraj Bayrakdar

Guest Writer, Stockholm City of Refuge

Faraj Bayrakdar of Syria is a journalist and award-winning poet.

In 1987 he was arrested on suspicion of belonging to the Party for Communist Action. He was held incommunicado for nearly seven years and was tortured. In 1993 the supreme court sentenced him to fifteen years prison.

Fourteen months shy of completing the fifteen year sentence, Faraj Baryakdar was granted Amnesty. You can read the statement he made for the press upon his release (courtesy of English PEN) here.

Photo:

Boubacar Boris Diop

Guest Writer pf Mexico City Casa Refugio, City of Refuge, Boubacar Boris Diop was born in Dakar, Senegal, where he attended a French school. Even before he finished high school, he wrote an unpublished novel describing he experience of racism. He got a degree in Literature and Philosophy and began teaching elementary school. An anti-colonialist, he was politically active. In 1981 he published his first novel, which won the Prix du Bureau Sénégalais du Droit d'Auteur. His second novel also won an award. His third novel was based on interviews with the survivors of the 1998 Tutsi genocide.

Gilles Dossou-Gouin

ICORN Guest Writer, Molde City of Refuge

Gilles Dossou-Gouin was born in Benin and identifies himself as belonging to the ethnic group Fon. He studied the humanities, theology and philosophy as a Séminariste among the Catholic monks. He also attended the International School of Detectives and Experts.

His first novel, published in 1996 was entitled God's Symbolism and the Imaginary . The book was a critical, socio-political satire and received nation-wide attention. In 1997 the controversy surrounding it forced Gilles Dossou-Gouin to flee to Senegal, where he lived in exile.

His second novel The Black Cry of the Negro was published in June of 2003 with the help of UNESCO. Gilles Dossou-Gouin is an activist and writes articles to promote Human Rights, and the Rights of Women and Children.

Islam Elsanov

Former ICORN Guest Writer Islam Elsanov is a filmmaker and writer from Chechnya, a former Guest Writer of Stavanger City of Refuge. He has a MA in Literature from the Gorkij Writers Institute. For eight years Islam Elsanov edited the literary journal Grozni and he also worked as a book editor for the Grozni publishing house. He is currently working on a feature-length historical documentary.

Carlos A. Aguilera

The Cuban poet, writer and cultural critic, Carlos A. Aguilera has been the ICORN Guest Writer in Frankfurt City of Refuge since August 2007. He is currently working on a new book.

SafaaAlwan

Safaa Alwan is the ICORN Guest Writer in Skien City of Refuge. He worked as an editor, journalist and writer in his homeland of Iraq, which he had to flee in 2009. 

Dejan Anastasijevic

Serbian Dejan Anastasijevic is the ICORN Guest Writer in writer Brussels. He is an investigative journalist and writer, and has freelanced for Time Magazine and The Guardian among others.

Pegah Ahmadi

Pegāh Ahmadi is an Iranian poet, scholar, literary critic and translator of poetry. She is currently the ICORN Guest Writer in Frankfurt City of Refuge. Ahmadi made her début as a poet at age seventeen by the publication of a poem in the literary magazine Takāpu. She has studied Persian literature at the University of Tehran, and regularly contributed to literary magazines on subject matters related to criticism of verse, theoretical issues pertaining to poetry and translation of poems. She is a member of Iranian Writers Association. In 2007 she was awarded the Celebrity of Poetry Award of the Iranian Journalists' Institute. Ahmadi has published several books of poetry, anthologies, literary reviews and translation of American poetry (like Sylvia Plath). Before coming to Germany, she worked as editor of the literary review Paperik and taught "Poetry in cinema" at the Film School Tehran.

 

Sihem Bensedrine

Tunisian journalist and writer prevented from working in her own country because of her involvement in human rights. She faced a long term persecution and reprisals against her and her family. A graduate of philosophy of the University of Toulouse (France), Sihem Bensedrine has been engaged in the fight for the human rights in Tunisia since 1980. As a journalist, she made her debut in the independent press which prospered in the 80s. This was the beginning of a fight for press freedom. This fighting also extended to the feminist sphere where she was at the origin of the birth of a women's club, Club Tahar Haddad, and of Nissa, a feminist magazine. 
Bensedrine is now editor in chief of the online magazine Ka¬lima and Radio Kalima(web and satellite radio. Kalima was denied registration after five attempts to register.