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Human-Made Poems
Here are three of favorite poets reading at the 2006 Dodge Poetry Festival. All of them write what Linh Dinh calls “human-made poems.” Enjoy! More of Linda Hogan on The Perpetual Bird here. More of Taslima Nasreen on The Perpetual Bird here.Read More
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Taslima Nasrin takes refuge “somewhere in Europe”
“Bangladeshi writer ‘exiled again’”. Let us all hope Taslima Nasrin at last finds peace and the creative freedom she deserves. Stepping back a bit from Taslima’s travails…: It would be illuminating to see a “diaspora map” showing the flow of intellectual resources—i.e., writers, artists, scientists, academics, etc.—from oppressive parts of the world to relatively free parts of the world. Something like this map tracing the first Jewish diasporas.Read More
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Poetic Brutality…
I launched into reading this article with an expectation of yet another clash of fundamentalisms, of the sort that has plagued Bangladeshi poet Taslima Nasrin. The outlines were familiar: a lecturer, one Sanjay M G, is attacked for reciting a poem “with ‘objectionable content….’ ” But it turns out the content involved a slur against a long-deceased political leader, Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire (d. 1680).Read More
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Governmental Gutlessness
Here is the latest news in the increasingly absurd failure of “the world’s largest democracy” to protect Taslima Nasrin’s freedom not only to speak and write, but to walk in the open air without fear for her life. Now she is being refused the opportunity to receive a prestigious international award in her own country.Read More
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Congratulations to Taslima Nasreen
I just stumbled across this draft of a post that I failed to actually post back in January…. “Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen has been chosen for the prestigious Simone de Beauvoir feminist award in recognition of her writing on rights for women,” reports Sify News.Read More
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Congratulations to Taslima Nasrin
“Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen has been chosen for the prestigious Simone de Beauvoir feminist award in recognition of her writing on rights for women,” reports Sify News.Read More
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Taslima Nasrin Under House Arrest
The suppression of Talsima Nasrin’s writing has extended to her person. Details here and on her own web site here.Read More
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Collected Furies
“Most famous authors overshadow their books, but Taslima Nasreen is different. The Bangladeshi poet, novelist, essayist and memoirist, as things stand, is better known to the non-Bengali world for what she says than how she writes. At 45, the woman who trained and worked as a medical doctor in Dhaka before she fled her country is probably the world’s most prolific underground writer, with at least six of her 30 books officially banned in her country and the rest selling mostly under cover.” >> Read the whole story.Read More
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Support for Taslima Nasrin
“Activists, journalists, students, writers, leaders. People from all walks of life collect to advocate [Taslima Nasrin’s] right to free speech and expression.” And as you can see in this photograph by Shailendra Pandey, attacks on free speech can still — somewhere in the world — bring people into the streets.Read More
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A Grumbling Echo…
Now, I’m not a hater of Islam, but the behavior of some Muslims continues to disgust me. The latest sorry episode in the ongoing harrassment of Taslima Nasrin is a case in point. These fundamentalist twits caused Ms. Nasrin to “grumble” before agreeing to flee Calcutta for her own safety. I echo her grumbling and find myself, yet again, forced to wonder when her situation will receive more attention from groups like International PEN, whose web site contains a mere 3 references to Nasrin.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
