Shahrazad - Stories for life

Boris Korkmazov, ICORN Guest Writer in Brussels, has this spring visited universities to meet with students of Russian translation. Yesterday the Russian author held a seminar at the Hogeschool Gent to a number of students keen to hear his stories about Russian language and culture.

The novelist and short-story writer has previously visited the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Institut Libre Marie Haps in Brussels, and the Artesis Hogeschool in Antwerp. 

Korkmazov is from the Karachay–Cherkess Republic. His open criticism of Russian policies led to attacks and threats, and he has been an ICORN Guest Writer in Brussels City of Refuge since 2011. In addition to translation and language, he has also been telling students about the situation in the North Caucasus region, looking at the reasons why people like him cannot stay if they want to continue writing.

– Each visit went well. There are not many students who study Russian, but they are all very happy to listen to the stories of Boris. He is a born storyteller, said Nathalie Goethals of Passa Porta, Brussels international house of literature.

French Belgian TV channel RTBF recently made a report on Korkmazov and ICORN’s work in Brussels. Watch it here.

Image shows Korkmazov at the Artesis Hogeschool in Antwerp.

This Friday Xavier Luffin will interview two young and talented African writers, Vamba Sherif (Netherlands/Liberia) and Suleiman Addonia (UK/Eritrea), during an international conference in Brussels. The event is a collaboration between Shahrazad, Passa Porta and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

Sherif has written several novels, with Bound to Secrecy (Aflame 2010) recently being translated into French (Borderland, Métailié 2012) and other languages. In Bound to Secrecy, William Mawolo, a stranger from the capital, faces unexpected dangers and mysteries when arriving in the border town of Wologizi on a secret mission to investigate the disappearance of the local paramount chief.

Addonia is the author of Consequences of Love (Vintage 2009), also translated into French and other languages. His second novel will be published soon. Consequences of Love is a romantic tale, set in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah in the eighties, between a young Eritrean migrant named Nasser and an enigmatic girlfriend. Both of them deploy ingenuity and courage to meet in a fundamentalist environment.

The conference, entitled Writers Facing the Civil War: a Focus on Sudan, takes place at the ULB 22 - 24 March 2012.

In 2009 deBuren and Passa Porta launched the first edition of The Balkans and Europe, a series of cultural debates hosted by the Serbian journalist Dejan Anastasijevic (Time). Together with writers from the former Yugoslavia, Anastasijevic looks into several aspects of the European and Balkan culture.

Guest speaker for the third edition is Jasmina Tešanović, a Serbian feminist writer, translator, publisher and political activist.