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LOBI writer, Jade, is published by Penguin

Sunday, December 09, 2007
LOBI writer and Refugee Council volunteer, Jade Amoli-Jackson, is among the sixteen authors chosen by Penguin and the Arts Council to have their story included in an anthology, From There to Here.

The judges, who included novelist Kate Mosse, chose from among 100 entries about the immigrant experience which ranged from the funny and light to the more literary.

You can read more about the anthology in this newspaper article here.

Congratulations Jade! We're very proud of you!

Dream Traveller

Saturday, April 28, 2007
Dream Traveller is a new and mysterious piece of writing by Mark Hill.

Talking about how he came to write this piece, Mark says:

'I read a book by the psychologist, Daniel Nettle, [who believes] that creativity and madness are two sides of the same coin. In the world of paranoia every object or colour can rapidly show itself as an abstract. (I think the same thing happens in the imaginative and creative process.) So this lady [the Dream Traveller] could appear in my dreams or paranoia or creative processes or all of them. She is a source of inspiration, calmness, relief, rescue... indeed, symbolised like a God, but who is she? Where did she come from? She could be someone whom I have loved, an escape from harsh and difficult reality (unfortunately I spent a long time in a difficult condition) or an escape from severe pain (physically and emotionally)...just like a God. But my God is on earth, not in the sky.'

Read Dream Traveller by Mark Hill on our wiki to find out more.

Crimson moon

Saturday, March 03, 2007
I've just been looking out of the little window in the roof above my desk, here in North Yorkshire. The sky is full of stars... and there is a beautiful moon, like a perfectly round pearl, turning from pink to red.

And I'm thinking that here on the night side of the earth there must be millions of people who have stopped whatever they are doing just to look up at this eclipsed moon.

Sure enough, a quick Google search shows live web cams from moon watchers in Iran, Norway, Belgium, Spain, Argentina and Georgia, USA.

In Iran it's called mah; in China it is yuet; and in Tutsi it is mwezi.

At risk of sounding naive, it just strikes me in this moment, as I breathe out under the open window, that there are simply no reasons for us to feel different from one another. Just like our ancestors before us, we're all moon worshippers.

Two beautiful stories by Aziz

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
I love Aziz's writing. He creates wonderful blends of the folktales and story-telling traditions of his native Sudan with a wry sense of humour and a passion for justice. Read two new short stories by Aziz here...

New poems by Mark Hill

Monday, January 22, 2007
Who would believe that, only a couple of years ago, Mark Hill felt unable to write poems and short stories in English?

The talented Iranian poet and novelist told us that his only hope was to find a translator of his many writings in Farsi (Persian). And yet here he is, only a short time later, writing beautiful poems like this one directly into English.

As a poet, I can't imagine writing poems in, say, Italian, the only language in which I can reasonably claim that I have any kind of proficiency. And translation itself seems a mysterious art. (What gets 'translated'? What gets left out? How do things change?)

I can understand the exiled writer's fears about writing in a language which always feels, somehow, one step removed. And yet, this also makes me think about how all language is slippery, impossible to pin down. We feel something inside ourselves and, as we try to put it into words, it has already changed, moved on. Perhaps this continual reaching after language is what making poems is really all about? Perhaps we write poems because we know that our words are somehow never quite enough? In this way, every poem is a small act of courage.

What I notice in the writing on our wiki is that something very interesting and new happens when people get up enough courage to begin to write in a new language.

Take a look at three of Mark's new poems here.

(posted by Sophie)

Tim Malmo blogs his big ideas...

Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Tonight, I am pleased and proud to introduce Tim Malmo as LOBI's blogger for the next few days or so...

You can read about Tim and read
some of his writing here.


Over to you, Tim...

The veil

Friday, October 13, 2006
Amid the current debate about the veil, you might be interested in reading about the experiences and opinion of one Iranian woman, Nasrin Parvaz.

Nasrin writes of her battle with her mother as a young girl living in pre-1978 Iran, in order to win the right to refuse the veil.

A passionate campaigner for human rights and freedom of speech, Nasrin came to the UK in 1993 after a long period of imprisonment and torture by the regime. You can read more of her short stories on her own web site here.