Nadia Abduljabbar stresses the need to address the similarities between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, considering "different religions as different windows toward Heaven." Nihad Sirees addresses the concept of Jihad in Islam, and the...
Kyoko Yoshida tackles the topic of fantasy and reality through identifying "disorientalism" in four parts, taking his audience on a journey that beings with a story by Edgar Allen Poe and ends with Coleridge pursuing the real, rebuilt, Xanadu....
Simone Inguanez chooses to stand in her poetry, a place that can neither be created nor destroyed. James Na divides his presentation into three topics: the hibernation of Phillippine-Chinese literature, the Phillippine-Chinese literature under the...
To Anna Rogozhnikova, female literature can be singled out, separated and understood as a continuation of the women writers themselves. Considering male domination a universal issue, Edi Shukriu divides her talk into four parts: gender experience...
Elena Bossi's discussion of "Writing as Philosophy and Craft" focuses on pseudonymity in fiction, titling her talk "The Names of the Other." Chris Chryssopoulos recalls philosophies of Jorge Luis Borges, Immanuel Kant, Ludwig Wittgenstein, but...
Kavery Nambisan describes the migrant writer's thought-space, not losing rootedness whether traveling in the real or in the imagination. Saša Stanišić's talk is titled, "How You See Us: on Three Myths about Migrant Writing," and covers the myth...
Agnes Lam, using few words as is her preference, writes poetry because it is something she likes to do. Hu Xudong's talk, "From the Margin of a Painting to Plural Inner Selves," describes the myriad transitions he has gone through growing from a...
Edgar Calabia Samar of the Philippines begins the panel with a discussion of the power of lists on readership. He states that the danger that lists of canonical books is the fact they ignore potentially significant works and may further limit...
Rogelio Saunders, a Cuban, reads from his essay “The Second Realization.” The title derives from his classification of two moments of globalization in human history – the more recent phenomena of international relations and when Columbus...
Maryam Ala Amjadi is a poet and translator from Iran. For her, the act of translating is in itself a form of self-exile, because the writer is forced to distance themselves from their mother tongue and in so doing, they become spectators both of...
In Liu Heng's talk, titled "Wandering between the Novel and Film," Liu orients his comments around his experience writing novels and collaborating with directors, who at times alter his "artistic design." Young-Moon Jung discusses how verbal and...
South African author Maxine Case discusses Miriam Tlali and Bessie Head, two former South African women IWP participants. She then gives a brief history of apartheid and closes by stating that she is grateful for the efforts of authors such Tlali...
Beyond describing the necessary qualities in translating poetry--"honesty, musical ears, investigating for the right things behind things"--Nadia Abduljabbar's talk goes into the difficulties of translating cultural experiences and expectations...
Farhad A.K. Sulliman Khoyratty of Mauritius begins the panel by stating that satire is an “instrument guaranteeing the health of society.” He also discusses the nature of satire, particularly the insider/outsider element and the subversive...
Milosz Biedrzycki's talk, titled "Jan Kochanowski: Across the Languages, Beyond the Boundaries," discusses the 16th-century poet, who wrote in Polish and Latin, and his centuries-long impact on Polish poetry. Andrea Hirata's talk, "Translating...
Truce or Consequences: The people in Northern Ireland have decided they want peace, and a remarkable Iowa graduate is helping them achieve it. Mo Mowlam, who went face-to-face with killers from both sides of the conflict to broker the Good Friday...
Madeleine Thien's talk is titled, "The Shattered Mirror: On the Migrant in Literature and Politics," and says that "my writing allows me to reflect a self that is often in-between places, that is restless and that is not satisfied." Gutierrez...
Meena Kandasamy of India discusses the problems she has faced with her official first name, Ilavenil. She discusses the political and religious origins of her name and that after wishing for a long time that she had a different surname, concludes...
Alice Pung's talk, titled "A White Dude That Sparkles: Awkward Desire in the Coming of Age Novel," and delves into the embarrassing details of new sexual terrain, especially as described in Young Adult literature. Miloš Djurdjević's talk is...