Source: ELN VII: When Home Is Far Away by Rosie Goldsmith | European Literature Network
On Wednesday 3 June Rosie Goldsmith presented the writers Hassan Blasim (Iraq/Finland) winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2014, Hamid Ismailov (Uzbekistan/UK) the BBC World Service’s first Writer in Residence and renowned poet Ribka Sibhatu (Eritrea/Italy) at Waterstones Piccadilly, London.
Rosie Goldsmith Introduction
We are slowly broadening our narrow British minds and our activities – and tonight we embrace 3 outstanding writers from beyond Europe, now exiled in Europe.
The fact that all 3 have survived either/or/all the horrors of war, brutal dictatorships, imprisonment, torture, racism and the traumas of migration and exile gives their writing a substance and significance that is transcendent, important for us all and profoundly human. Their work is both beautiful, brave and painful. I am not being sentimental here– they certainly aren’t – these are the facts.
Living away from home, being away from family away from the touchstones of belonging and childhood memories is something you and I may have the freedom to choose. They did not and still do not. They are in exile. How does it feel to know you can’t return home? How do you live and write if home is far away? Does exile change their creativity? Can it breathe new life into their new lives in their new homes?
The fact our 3 writers have found safe havens with us in Europe is a gift we should treasure – and thanks to their translators, enlightened publishers and some very special colleagues, we can tonight enjoy the gift of their writing and their presence.
So please welcome:
HASSAN BLASIM from Iraq – and Finland. Hassan is a poet, filmmaker and short story writer. The Guardian described him as ‘perhaps the greatest writer of Arabic fiction alive’. In 2014 they won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for ‘The Iraqi Christ’ published by Short Story specialists Comma Press.
RIBKA SIBHATU is from Eritrea originally – and Italy today. Ribka is a poet, a remarkable writer born in Eritrea in 1962 and today living in Rome. She is also an expert on immigration politics as well as the Eritrean folk tradition.
HAMID ISMAILOV is a prolific journalist, poet and novelist writing in Uzbekh and Russian and was forced to leave Uzbekistan 20 years ago. He now lives here in London, works at my alma mater the BBC as Head of the Central Asian Service.
If you would like to read more by Rosie Goldsmith about each writer, and a fuller version of their biographies and publications, do read on!