Shahrazad - Stories for life

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.

Dejan Anastasijevoc Dejan Anastasijevic is the first ICORN writer to be our guest in Brussels.He is Serbian and had to leave Belgrade because his own life and that of his wife and child were in serious danger. Dejan Anastasijevic is an investigative journalist and writer. He started his career as a war reporter in Vukovar (1991) and Bosnia (1992). He writes for the Serbian magazine Vreme, is a freelance correspondent for Time Magazine and writes articles for Slobodna Bosna, The Guardian and other publications. In 1998, his articles on the violence against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo brought him into discredit with the Milosevic regime. In April 1999, during the NATO bombardments and the subsequent suppression of the free press, he fled to Vienna. There, he worked for Time until 2002. He returned to Belgrade to witness the downfall of Milosevic. He was the first Serbian journalist to testify against Milosevic at the Tribunal in The Hague. His present journalism is mainly about organised crime and insecurity in Serbia.Dejan Anastasijevic has also written Out of War (London, 2000), a highly-praised book on the Serbian opposition. He is currently working on two new publications.

Carlos A. Aguilera
The Cuban poet, writer and cultural critic, Carlos A. Aguilera, (b.1970 in Havana) has been living in Frankfurt since August 2007 Read more about Carlo A. Aguilera.

Svetlana Alexievich
Born in the Ukraine, Svetlana is the former ICORN Guest Writer in 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.

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

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. Read more about Faraj Bayrakdar.

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.