ICORN Writers: P - Q - R - S - T

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

Mansur Rajih

As a young university student, Mansur Rajih's poetry was published in local newspapers. His work was critical of the Yemeni regime, and in 1983 he was arrested and imprisoned under the guise of a murder charge. The following year he was sentenced to death. For fifteen years organizations such as PEN International and Amnesty International campaigned for Mansur’s release, which was finally granted in 1998 when he was flown directly from prison to Stavanger City of Refuge. Since that time Mansur Rajih has written and published three volumes of poetry, bi-lingual collections with poems in Norwegian and Arabic: Horoskop: Fengsel? Horoskop: Kjærleik. (2000), Så langt borte: Så nær (2003) and Min brors smerte (2008).  His life (thus far) has also been the subject of several short films. To read a Norwegian newspaper article on Mansur Rajih, go here . To read four of his poems in English, go here . To read poems in Norwegian and Arabic, go here . To listen to a recording of Mansur Rajih reading his poetry, go here .

Umm Rafal

. . 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.

Aziz Sangtarash

Former Guest Writer of Oslo City of Refuge, he is a short story writer, editor and poet. Aziz Sangtarash was born in Abadan, Iran and studied literature at the University of Teheran. Persecution and imprisonment prevented him from completing his studies and his work was censored by the Iranian authorities. He is a member of the Iranian Writers' Union.

Abu Al Teman

. . . 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.

Anisur Rahman

Anisur Rahman, the first official ICORN Guest Writer in Uppsala, is a poet, playwright, literary critic, essayist, novelist, translator and journalist from Bangladesh.  Anisur Rahman writes for newspapers in Bangladesh, Sweden and elsewhere alongside participating in debate and literary programmes on various occasions in Uppsala and other cities. He is a member of the Swedish Writers' Union, the Swedish Foreign Press Association, Writers' Centre in Stockholm and is an honorary member of Swedish PEN. Born in Madhupur, Tangail, Bangladesh in 1978, Anisur Rahman studied English Literature and Linguistics alongside Bengali and History at the University of Dhaka. He has published two collections of poems in Bengali and another in English. He translates poems and plays from English to Bengali and from Bengali to English. His translation of Henrik Ibsen's poems in Bengali was published in 2006. His Bengali novel Oi Andhakar Ase (The Dark Sounds) appeared in April 2009. Rahman's collection of poems is being translated to Swedish to be published later this year. He scripted two plays - Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea in Bengali. His latest publication is The Absent Poet and Other Essays - a collection of 40 essays on aesthetic traditions and socio-cultural aspects of Bengali poetry and plays. He has visited Inida, France, Mexico, Sweden and the UK on invitation to different international literary conferences and festivals. He lectured on perspectives of translating poetry and Henrik Ibsen as a poet at the Universidad del Claustro da Sor Juana in Mexico City in 2006. In 2008, he participated in the Writers and Literary Translators  International Congress in Stockholm, where he presented a paper on "The Importance of Mother Tongue - The spirit of International Mother Language Day".