Book Launch – From Outside In: Refugees and British Society

Tuesday 19 June, 1800-2000, The Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Lane, Glasgow

The British Council is holding a public event as part of Refugee Week to launch a new book, From Outside In: Refugees and British Society. The book has been published by the British Council's cultural relations think-tank, Counterpoint, and Arcadia Books. It is a collection of memoir, fiction and poetry that explores being British from the perspective of the newly arrived.

The Scottish launch for the book will take place at the Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Lane, off Buchanan Street, Glasgow on Tuesday 19 June from 1800-2000. Nushin Arbabzadah, the Editor, will launch the book and Iyad Hayatleh, a Palestinian refugee poet living in Glasgow, will read from the book as well as some of his own work in English and Arabic. After the launch, guests are welcome to attend a networking reception.

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A ‘Writers in Exile’ network was established by International PEN in 1999 and is now chaired by PEN Canada.  The Scottish centre is playing its part by helping to ensure that writers who have been compelled to leave their homeland can have a safe haven, translation opportunities for their work, and a place in a community of writers in Scotland.

Projects include:

• Create: Understand.  A series of mutual translation workshops in early 2004 between writers using different languages.  This resulted in the publication of a pamphlet, ‘Exile’.
• Cities of Refuge.  Scottish PEN hopes to collaborate with other agencies to help at least one Scottish city to join the growing international network of ‘Cities of Refuge’ which offer a safe space to persecuted writers and raise the profile of free speech and anti-racism. 

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In April 2006 Scottish PEN collaborated with Artists in Exile Glasgow to translate writing of various writers in exile as well as Scottish PEN members. The resulting poems were read in Glasgow during Refugee Week in June, and in Edinburgh on National Poetry Day in October. They were also made into Poemcards, illustrated by artists in exile, and produced in a pamphlet, entitled Between.

Click on PEN/AIEG translations 2006 on the left to read the full text

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SCOTTISH PEN PRESENTS

TALKING OF POETRY

An Afternoon with Poets from

Palestine and Persia

Iyad Hyatleh and Mahmood Farzan in discussion with Zekri Ettaouchi and Jila Peacock. Music from the Middle East

Artists in Exile Glasgow Gallery

8-10 Osborne Street Glasgow

Talking of Poetry, organised by Scottish PEN for the International
Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace.

We had a capacity audience at the Artists in Exile Gallery in Glasgow, 24 people attending, besides the performers and PEN organisers, and were treated to a very 
wide-ranging and informative talk on Palestinian poetry by Zekri 
Ettaouchi, followed by readings of his poems in Arabic by Iyad Hayetleh. 
The passion and musicality of his reading was much appreciated by the 
audience. In the second half Jila Peacock read poems in Farsi, including 
part of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and talked about the difficulties of 
translating such poetry. Mahmood read his own poems in Farsi. Again, the 
opportunity to hear these works in the original language was very much appreciated.

Translations of all the poems read were supplied to the audience. The 
results of a questionnaire returned on the day indicated a strong interest 
in events of this kind among those who responded.

Scottish PEN actively promotes interchange between writers of all nationalities and supports writers who have been oppressed in their own countries as well as the many talented writers from other cultures who are in our midst.

Anne Clark