The following AIAW panel members will share work by Iraqi and American poets and writers:

• Persis Karim
• Zaid Shlah
• Sarah Browning
• Zara Houshmand

Date: Thursday March 11, 2010
Time: 11.30am - 1 pm
Where: SPLIT THIS ROCK POETRY FESTIVAL 2010 (March 10-13), Poetry of Provocation and Witness, Washington, D.C.
:: Map to come
Venue Listings, schedule and contact info at:
www.splitthisrock.org

The following AIAW members will be reading:

• Persis Karim
• Kaveh Bassiri
• Sholeh Wolpe
• Zara Houshmand
• Solmaz Sharif

Date: Saturday March 13, 2010
Time: 2:00pm - 3:30 pm
Where:SPLIT THIS ROCK POETRY FESTIVAL 2010 (March 10-13), Poetry of Provocation and Witness, Washington, D.C.
:: Map to come
Venue Listings, schedule and contact info at:
www.splitthisrock.org

American Poets Speak Out!

In association with Sholeh Wolpé, Iranian-American poet and author of "I Am Neda", we collected dozens of original poems in support of those who speak out for freedom around the world.

This is an unprecedented event because the American poetry community has never spoken out collectively addressing the world like this. If you can, please post this announcement on any websites you have access to and forward it to your mailing list.

Featuring performances by poets:

• Maxine Hong Kingston
• Eloise Klein Healy
• James Ragan
• Tony Barnstone

With actors reading poems by:

• Yusef Kumunyakaa
• Joy Harjo
• Andrew Hudgins
• Annie Finch
• Kim Addonizio
• Sam Hamill
• Carolyn Forché
• Marvin Bell
• David Waggoner
• Robert Bly
• Thomas Lux
  

Mamak Khadem, called by the LA Times “one of the wonders of world trance music”, has composed a stunning musical piece for this event

Where: HAMMER MUSEUM, Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024 - MAP
When: Tuesday, February 16 at 7 pm
Admission is free - tickets are required and available at the Box Office 1 hour prior to start time
Broadsides of selected poems will be available for purchase with proceeds benefiting PEN USA’s Emergency Writers Fund.
Info at
More info: (310) 443-7000, www.penusa.org and www.hammer.ucla.edu

Rooftops of Tehran was voted in the Outstanding Debut category for Fall-Winter 2009-2010 by Indie Booksellers nationwide, and was selected as an Indie Next Notable for the month of June and a Bookreporter Bets On in May.

San Francisco Chronicle chose Rooftops of Tehran as one of its top 50 books in the Bay Area in December.

Rooftops is Villanova University's One Book selection for 2009-2010. Mahbod was on campus on January 26th for a lecture event. He was also on NPR for an interview on “Radio Times with Marty Moss- Coane” at 11:00 am on January 25, and rebroadcast on Sirius Radio later the same day.

Rooftops is Broward College's Rites of Spring 2010 selection. Mahbod will be on their campus on March 30th and 31st.

More info here: www.rooftopsoftehran.com

Keep this date free and join us for a panel discussion about emerging Asian American women writers. On the panel are Anita Amirrezvani (left), Kathryn Ma, Barbara Jane Reyes and Shawna Yang Ryan. Moderated by Marianne Villanueva.

Two novelists, a short story writer and a poet discuss what influences and inspires their writing and how they negotiate their identity as writers. In her novel The Blood of Flowers Anita Amirrezvani skillfully interweaves culture, romance and art. Kathryn Ma’s story collection All That Work and Still No Boys won the Iowa Short Fiction Award. For Poeta en San Francisco, Barbara Jane Reyes received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Shawna Yang Ryan’s first novel, Water Ghosts, is a haunted portrait of a Sacramento River town. Marianne Villanueva, whose most recent story collection is Mayor of the Roses, is also the co-editor of Going Home to A Landscape: Writings by Filipinas.

Presented by:
:: University of San Francisco MFA in Writing Program
:: Asian-American Studies Program Cosponsored by the Center for the Pacific Rim and Asia Society, Northern California

Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010
Time: 7:30 PM- 9 PM
Where: Xavier Room in Fromm Hall (corner of Parker and Golden Gate), USF campus. MAP
Contact Info:

Esther Kamkar and others will be reading for this event to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Muttanabi street bombing.
Date: March 5, 2010
Time: Starts 7.30pm
Where: The Great Overland Book Company, 345 Judah St (between 8th Ave & 9th Ave), San Francisco, CA 94122 - MAP
Contact Info: (415) 664-012

Callaloo, the journal of arts and letters of the African Diaspora, has just released a special issue (Volume 32, Number 4) of Middle Eastern and North African writers guest-edited by AIAW member Salar Abdoh (On the Way to the Wind: Contemporary Writing from the Middle East and North Africa) and Percival Everett.

AIAW members Sholeh Wolpé (Of Leaving), Persis Karim (Ways to Count the Dead) and Manijeh Nasrabadi (A Far Corner of the Revolution) are among the many established and emerging writers featured in this diverse collection, which includes voices from across the region and throughout the diaspora. Check it out online at:
www.muse.jhu.edu or at your local library.

New innovative magazine reflecting exciting, different voices in a new cultural environment. Content features literature, discussion and commentary. Exiled Ink is unique in providing an insight into dislocation and cultures of exile, both through the voices of exiled writers and through their literary work.

CONTENTS

Conflict Zones - Sri Lanka
Poetry: R. Cheran, Thirumavalavan, Sivamohan Sumathy
Prose: Rohini Hensman
Articles: Sri Lankan Tamil Poetry - Rohini Hensman, Historical Background - Lakshmi Holmstrom

Iran
Poetry: Sholeh Wolpe, Esther Kamkar (Animals that We Are), Majid Naficy, Afshin Babzadeh, Reza Hiwa
Articles: Last Straw for Iranians - Fariba Marzban, Haleh Esfandiari - Claire Messud

Syria (Kurdish)
Poetry: Hussein Habash

Chechyna
Poetry: Mikhail Isin Eldin
Article: Apti Bisultanov - Sieglinde Geisel
Short Story: Tamara Islamova

Bosnia
Theatre Production and Script excerpts
Exiled Writers Ink National Mentoring and Translation Project
Poetry and Prose

Latin American Exile
Prose: Marta Raquel Zabelata Hinrichsen/ Alfredo Cordal
Poetry: Gisela Jachniuk

Exiled from Israel
Poetry: Haim Bresheeth

Writing Africa
Short Story: Fiston Mwanza
Poetry: Kiluanji Kush
Article: Caine Prize: Nisha Jones

Reviews
Anthology of Somali Literature - review: Stephen Watts
Leaving Tangiers by Tahar Ben Jelloun - review: Albert Pellicer
Rooftops of Tehran by Sholeh Wolpe - review: Jeremy Edward Shiok
Like Myth and Mother by S. Sumathy - review: Lynette Craig

Contact Info and Website: www.exiledwriters.co.uk

I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights
This Poetry Anthology features a poem by AIAW member Farnoosh Moshiri, "Blossoms Culled, Unripe".
Edited by Melissa Kwasny and M. L. Smoker, this 6 x 8 inch, 168 page Anthology is honest, brutal and inspiring. Read more here
For each book sold, $2 will be donated to the Bonner County (Idaho) Human Rights Task Force
Available at your local bookstore or online book retailer