Shahrazad - Stories for life

At this year's Kapittel - Stavanger International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Expression - we are happy to present a wide range of events and voices that will contribute in making Kapittel a truly international festival. The theme of Kapittel 10 is Memory - how does memory work in literature, and how is literature a contributing force for our memory?

Among the distinguished guests hosted by ICORN and Shahrazad is Moris Farhi, writer, Vice President of International PEN, and former Chair of the WiPC, who will deliver this year's ICORN lecture - The Courage to Forget.  Mr Farhi's essay deals with the need to forget in peace and reconciliation work. This theme is carried forward in a panel discussion on Forgiveness and Memory with Patrick Maguire (Northern Ireland), Ana Valdes (Uruguay/Sweden) and Basim Mardan (Iraq/Norway).

In honor of the 50 year anniversary of the WiPC, ICORN and PEN is co-hosting a conversation on Writers in Prison between Mr Farhi and Yemeni poet Mansur Rajih. This event is part of the WiPC anniversary campaign, in which Mr Rajih's imprisonment and release has been chosen as one of 50 emblematic cases that the WiPC has been involved with over the years.  

In addittion to these events, Stavanger's own ICORN Guest Writer Manal Al Sheikh will take part in the festival opening gala along with some of Norway's most popular writers.

Kapittel 10 opens Wednesday September 22, and lasts until September 25. To read more on these events, go to the Shahrazad calendar. To read the full program, go here . To read an overview of events in English, go here .

In September, several ICORN Guest Writers, the ICORN Administration Center and Shahrazad - stories for life will participate in and meet with writers and translators from around the world at the second Writers' and Literary Translators' International Congress (WALTIC ) in Istanbul.

Iranian Guest Writers Asieh Amini, Pegah Ahmadi (picture) and Parvin Ardalan will participate in a Shahrazad event discussing the current situation for writers and women's rights in Iran, and ICORN will be presented in a seminar on freedom of expression. In addition to this, ICORN Guest Writer Anisur Rahman has been invited to present a paper on the impact of NGOs on literacy and literature.

When the congress was first organized in Stockholm in 2008, nearly four hundred delegates signed the WALTIC resolution demanding themselves, other organizations and institutions, enterprises, authorities and governments to take an active stand to increase literacy, safeguard freedom of expression, and strengthen authors' rights:  

"Literature is a source of knowledge with the strength to empower entire populations. WALTIC underlines the Value of Words by stating the fact that human rights are profoundly associated with the growth of literacy and to the creation and dissemination of literature of all kinds. Literacy, freedom of expression and authors' rights are keys to the never-ending pursuit of truth, for the development of societies based on democratic and humanitarian values as well as for the individual aspiring to express his or her unique knowledge and experience."

WALTIC opens on September 2, and an offer of a reduced registration fee is available until August 26.  

We are glad to announce that ICORN has formally associated with the renowned European net portal Eurozine. Eurozine is a network of European cultural journals, linking up more than 75 partner journals and just as many associated magazines and institutions from nearly all the European countries. Eurozine is also an internet magazine which publishes outstanding articles from its partner journals, with additional translations into one of the major European languages.

Through allying with Eurozine, ICORN hopes to reach further out with information about the organization and its member cities to the general European public and intellectual space. Furthermore, a major ambition is to open up another attractive platform of communication and potential channel of publication for the ICORN guest writers.  

Having been informed and inspired by the vibrant Eurozine magazine through many years, I am convinced that the new alliance between Eurozine and ICORN will be mutually fruitful for both parties, says Helge Lunde, ICORN Executive Director.