Writers making the world legible

Imagine trying to write a book in Arabic or Cantonese and your mother tongue is firmly English. This is what it is like for writers who are forced into exile. Not only must they learn a new language but if they cannot suppress their desire to write then they must also try to create fiction in their adopted language.
Once the book is written, what chance of translation into English? Only 3% of the 150,000 or so books published in Britain each year are literary translations.
 English PEN's remit since its foundation in 1921 has been to "give a voice to the voiceless." This year The Writers' in Translation programme is celebrating its fifth year of supporting authors, especially raising the profile of authors at risk.

Amanda Hopkinson, Professor of Translation at the University of East Anglia and founder chair of Writers in Translation, stressed the importance of this work at an event for two supported PEN writers, Eli Amir and Atiq Rahimi, in the Islington Waterstones in June. Amanda told the audience that the writers of the first two books which were translated have been killed since publication. In many parts of the world it is a dangerous occupation being a writer.

Atiq Rahimi, pictured here with his translator flew in specially from Paris for events this week. Originally from Afghanistan he was exiled to France and wrote his novel,The Patience Stone, in French. Atiq told us that writing in French was very liberating. "Language is like a skin. Living in exile away from your own country, language becomes an obsession." Atiq's novel challenges the taboos around women in Afghani society He is not readily accepted into the Afghani exiled community in Paris, let alone in his home country. "I know I cause pain when I write of these matters but a writer must challenge the edges of received views."

Eli Amir was born in Baghdad into the Iraqi Jewish community. As a teenager he went into exile with over 90% of his community who all left within a year, "unprecedented in the history of refugees," Eli told us. "Only one place would take us, Israel." He went on to become a ministerial adviser on Arab affairs and immigrant absorption.
 Eli's first language is Judeo-Arabic and he only "technically" wrote his novels in Hebrew. He heard the book in Arabic in his head, in the voices of his mother and father arguing in Arabic and so in his novels, "I wrote down what they said."

In The Dove Flyer Eli Amir recreates Baghdad in the 1940s. He describes a society in chaos, as if in the middle of an earthquake and everyone has a dream. But ultimately like the wings of a dove the dreams of the main characters are broken as they go into exile. "I write to show the pain, the sorrow, the insult of losing a homeland,"  says Amir.The Dove Flyer is the first in a trilogy about the interface between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. Eli feels that The Dove Flyer will help people to understand what erupted in Iraqi society in the 1940s. "I could smell it in the air. Within 10 years all the leadership was gone." The Jewish community was forced into exile. "The difference between Atiq and me," Eli told the audience," is that he has the privilege now to visit Afghanistan. I cannot return to Baghdad because I am the enemy. They will kill me."
I have published a more extensive interview with Eli Amir which you can read here.

So what is it like to experience your work in different languages?
Atiq told us, "Language remains a mystery." His choice of language has a huge impact on the rhythm of his work. For this new novel he chose French over Persian for just that reason.
Eli was asked in Germany, "How did you feel hearing you book read in German?"
He smiled and said, "In my left ear was German, in my right ear was Arabic, my father's voice and I followed in my Hebrew version of the book from right to left."
Ultimately Eli wrote his book so that his children will know where he came from and also so that they would understand their grandparents background. "I wanted to recreate the city of my childhood which I loved so much and to keep it with me so I can hang it at night like I hang the book," he said.

Leila Kogba, Director of Strategy and Partnerships in Islington, introduced the evening which was a part of Refugee Week.Herself a refugee from the Biafran War she said that she had never thought of herself as a refugee until she read about the war in  Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie. "Writing is the most powerful way to tell a story," she said.

English PEN has produced a marvellous book, Making the World Legible, to mark five years of Writers in Translation with extracts from all the writers. You can download the book here.

Writers in Translation is a powerful force for good in the world.
                     Andrew Motion


A vibrant border-crossing revelation of contemporary international literature...what writing is all about.
                    Ali Smith


What a wonderful and indispensable project this is.
                 Amit Chaudhuri


How can there be peace without us knowing each other? 
                  Eli Amir speaking in Cairo.


Listen to a radio interview with Eli Amir.

Reading in the Garden.

What better place to hold a literary event than in a garden. That is just what Naomi Woddis, Writer in Residence at the Culpeper Community Garden in Islington decided to do one sunny Sunday this June.
Naomi invited a whole crew of poets, musicians and authors to come and perform in the beautiful Poetry Gazebo.

The Culpeper Community Garden is named after a famous 17th century herbalist who published his works in Islington. It began as a triangle of wasteland in 1982 and with the support of local people has developed into a beautiful public garden. There are mini allotments for community groups, children and people living nearby who don't have gardens. There are three Garden Workers and a team of volunteers.

Richard and Lucia are planting peas.

Scarlet, one of the Workers is showing her Washing Line Potatoes. Place a single seed potato in a lined carrier bag filled with compost and hang it on a washing line until the potatoes grow. You don't need any outside space for this, just a window and a washing line.
I can feel a poem coming on!

Naomi opened the event by reading some of her own wonderful poems, including one inspired by Rilke's line, Poetry is the past that breaks out in our hearts.
She has written a poem about the garden before it was planted.
Post-war playground - ...Now the soil's as rich as coffee richly brewed.....
Naomi says her poetry is summed up with two themes - He left me, that's not very nice and Poetry's great!

Jacqui Saphra's first pamphlet, Rock 'n' Roll Mama was published by Flarestack and she has a new collection coming out with Flipped Eye in October 2010. Jacqui read us some lovely and intriguing poems about nature including a love poem : The White Forest - ...daily I scatter wordseeds over the bleached terrain....

Courttia Newland, novelist and short story writer, read us a recently published short story, The Biscuit Man's Wife. Courttia's crisp descriptive prose and excellent contemporary dialogue captures brilliantly the life and culture of young people today but also the universal dilemma of running with the crowd.

Karen McCarthy  came up with some of the best titles of the day.
If I were a Buddhist I would chant for you - For my fence I shall plant a row of unicorn horns....propagate sea horse...I will wear two feathers of the phoenix tail upright in my hair....
and the wonderful - A farthing in a can of coke.
Karen's rich and strictly rigorous poetry never fails to move and challenge me. This is poetry where everything has truly earned its place.

I decided to read the opening chapter of my novel, HIDDEN, ( Meadowside Books, March 2011) and the audience were most amused when I told them this was the World Premier of Chapter 1.
But they laughed in all the right places and got the ending - Phew! And then they wanted to buy the book.Someone even shouted out, "More!" at the end.

Katrina Naomi read us poems about growing up in Margate and then some poems from her pamphlet drawn on her research into the archives of the Bronte sisters. Katrina was Writer in Residence at the Bronte House in Haworth.






We also had readings from Heather Taylor, poems and a fairy story  and wonderful poems about the sun from Denrele - When the sun comes I will lick the sweat off a can of lager.


Our fantastic audience clapped and laughed and stood by us through thick and thin as all good audiences do.

And the garden hummed with children and bees and butterflies and poppies.

It was a truly lovely occasion. Why don't you find a beautiful garden to read your work aloud. I'm sure you'll get an audience.

Writing on Retreat.

I've been back a whole week from the SCWBI
( Scooby) Writing Retreat in Penderall College, outside Telford and I'm missing the peace and quiet and the total focus on writing.
Penderall College is a wonderful old manor house set in the middle of sheep grazing land and this is my third year running I've attended out Retreat. We have lovely single study bedrooms ( ensuite) and plenty of quiet places to sit, think, walk and write.

The substantial meals are taken in a beautiful old dining room, sitting round long trestle tables, nattering about the industry, our writing and Dr Who, a particular feature of the Retreat this year.
The wonderful Sue Hyams : in blue: organises the Retreat each year and makes sure we are all comfortable and well fed.

The high point of the meals for most of us is the fried bread at breakfast : our once a year treat!

This is a view of the sheep meadows at seven o'clock on the Saturday morning. This is the first year I've been on Retreat when it hasn't rained and I spent a lot of time outside at all hours, taking photographs and just enjoying the first proper sunshine of the year.
I could feel my brain clearing out the winter snow and cold and settling down to focus on the work in hand.
It must have worked because I wrote three chapters on my novel, STUFFED, the third novel in my Haying Cycle, Meadowside Books, March 2011.

Amazing really that I managed to do any writing because we had a very full programme. On the Friday night we  critiqued each other's work, always a very useful exercise. As a result I have made one character less passive and this really fed into the writing of one of the chapters this weekend.
We also had a full programme of speakers, Lee Weatherly, Pippa Goodhart and Julia Churchill. An enormous input on writing, publishing and various other aspects of the industry, all in one weekend. We also had 1:1 meetings with one of the speakers to review our manuscripts.
This was excellent for me as I am at the first draft stage on my new novel.
Feedback from Lee : great start, just keep going!

But it wasn't all work, work, work.
We did some pretty serious drinking too.
Well everyone else did.
 As I announced on the first evening, I'm a failed alcoholic and struggled to get through a bottle of cider. Still someone's got to do it and there were plenty of willing participants.
We had champagne on the Saturday night too : provided by Jon Mayhew : that's his profile in the pic.

Jon brought the champagne to celebrate the publication of his novel, Mortlock.
Great book, brilliant plotting and lovely to read it over the weekend and discuss it with the author as I went along. I thoroughly recommend it.

This was a great weekend with a lovely bunch of people, creative, generous and tons of fun.

Here I am looking mellow on the last night, struggling with my cider and feeling great after dinner and a lovely weekend writing and retreating.




If you haven't joined SCBWI yet, maybe this blog will be your inspiration.
Roll on next year and all that lovely fried bread!

I'm going to Kerch, The Crimea

What do you pack for a trip to Kerch? I took my Rough Guide to Russian, three pairs of candlesticks and a set of wooden bricks with Hebrew lettering. A strange combination you might think. Read this post and all will be revealed.
So where on earth is Kerch?
It took me ages to find it on a map.
"It's in the Crimea," I told people confidently.
"Korea?" they said and "Kerch, that's a drink isn't it?"
Its in the Ukraine, on the Crimean Peninsula and on the Black Sea. It still didn't help much so I wrote a poem called, Conversations.
When that didn't help I decided to write this blog and maybe when you've read it you'll make this amazing journey for yourself. You won't regret it, I promise you.

I went to Kerch with a group from my synagogue, Alyth Gardens. We are twinned with the emerging Jewish Community in Kerch and over 50 members have visited the community in the last 10 years. We have also hosted some of the Kerch members in London.
Their community building was taken over in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and used as a labour exchange, but since independence they have been able to claim it back. Its a beautiful building in the centre of town and has good facilities, perfect for reviving the Jewish Community which was completely decimated in WW2.

Members of the community met us on the steps of their building when we arrived. They were so delighted to see us and so pleased that we had made the long journey - two planes and a four hour drive in a minibus. But it was all well worth it. We were treated like royalty, shown absolutely everything that could be crammed into four and a half days and fed so well that we all put on weight.
 Hmm!

The ladies in the kitchen who made us lunch everyday.

There are 700 people in The Kerch Jewish Community and 250 are paid up members of the congregation. Alyth Gardens Synagogue provides a variety of support to help further the religious life of the community. There is also social, welfare and medical support for the community from other sources. The community provides  weekly religious services, bar and bat mizvah, a religion school, a women's group, a warm house for senior citizens, an embroidery group, a local history group and many other groups and services.

We were invited to lunch at the Warm House. This was a one bedroom flat where funds are provided for heating and a meal once a week for the senior citizens of the community. This was a wonderful occasion where we met the people who had experienced some of the most devastating times in the twentieth century. Their stories had us spellbound.

This is Nahum Abramovich, a prize winning author. At the age of 18 he was in the Soviet Army which fought all the way to Berlin. He was ordered to escort 108 German prisoners to a camp with only two other guards. The prisoners guessed that he was Jewish but they were grateful that the Soviet soldiers treated them well.
" Perhaps they were ashamed now at how they had treated the Jews," said Nahum smiling. "That was when I started to re-educate the Germans," He has written many books about the war to educate the next generation.

Alyth funds monthly food parcels for the less well off members of the community. Life in Kerch is not easy for most people but there is extreme poverty here, some of which we were taken to see. I have personally never seen such terrible living conditions and everything that we can do to support people in such awful conditions is gratefully received. Everyone we met told us over and over again how much they appreciated the support of our community and the support of the other agencies also. One woman is provided with insulin by the community. She is diabetic and otherwise she would simply have to go without. There is very limited health care and social services in Kerch for anybody.

This is Anya with her beautiful cat and behind her is her bird who sings like an angel. She lives with her mother, father and babooshka, her grandmother. We were invited to spend Friday night with Anya and her family. Anya lit the candles and said the prayer in Hebrew and her father said the prayers in Hebrew for the wine and bread, challa. However, Anya's mother and grandmother are not Jewish. Her father's grandfather was Jewish. In the Liberal Jewish Communities of the Ukraine the criteria for being Jewish is to have one Jewish grandparent. This was the criteria applied by the Nazis.
Anya's mother baked two beautiful challot for Friday night and the next morning the whole family came to synagogue to see Anya do her Bat Mitzvah. Babookshka came up to me afterwards in tears and hugged me. We did not need to speak each other's language.

This is Anya with her family on the morning of her Bat Mitzvah. She is sitting next to babooshka. Anya chose the Jewish name Esther. The tall boy standing is Mark who had a joint Bar Mitzvah with Anya. He chose the name Rafael. Mark has benefited from considerable emotional, religious and welfare support from the community and is now thriving. His mother attended the Bar Mitzvah morning. The lady standing is Zoya, the administrator and tireless worker for the community.

This is a photo of Esther and Lynn Levy. Esther is on the left and she is the Chair of the Kerch Jewish Community. Lynn is the chair of the Alyth Kerch Committee which raises funds and supports all the activities of the community.

Lynn and her husband Mike have been travelling to Kerch for 10 years and have done enormous work to fund raise and generally support the community. Mike has learnt to speak Russian and has personally made 26 trips to Kerch.They are very much loved by everyone in the Jewish community in Kerch.
On this trip they were made Honorary Members of the Kerch Jewish Community and presented with certificates. It was a very proud moment for us all.

This is Daniel with his mother Tania and Esther. Daniel came to visit London with Julia two years ago and came to Camden Market with me. Tania is the musical director and plays the piano and sings beautifully in all the services.
I asked Esther about growing up Jewish in the FSU. "I didn't know I was Jewish until I was eight," she told me. "And that was only because the kids yelled Jew at me in the street." So I asked her if she then became curious to find out more. "No," she said. "It never struck my head until I saw a tiny advert in the paper, decades later, that a new community was starting up."
It is very hard for a British Jew to imagine the void for Jews living in the Soviet Union, learning nothing about their religion, history and culture. To see the enthusiasm and commitment of the Kerch community made me feel very humble. The Jews of Kerch have worked so hard to revive their devastated community and their achievements are awesome.

On Saturday evening we visited the Youth Club. Anya and Mark were there after doing their Bar/Bat Mitzvah in the morning. They had each received a watch from the community and there had been a special lunch. But no big parties and their school friends did not attend. Anya looks a bit tired after her long day! But they both did brilliantly in the morning service. Well done and Mazeltov!

The Youth Club had a session on Yom Ha Shoah - the Jewish memorial day to the Holocaust.
Twenty year old Julia gave a talk about her visit to Auschwitz.
 It was so moving to hear these young people talk about the Shoah in their home town where 7000 Jews were rounded up and shot during the war. Regina told me in perfect English, "We are proud to be Jewish and we refuse to be scared."
 Julia said," Even after visiting the camps I still don't understand why this happened."
"Nobody understands," I said.

I had offered to run a poetry workshop with the Youth Club so they kindly gave me thirty minutes!! It was in Russian and English  -
kruta / cool.I asked everyone to brainstorm what they think of when they think of London, Kerch and Israel.They came up with some great ideas.We managed to write a group poem before we ran out of time. I was shattered!
I am planning to do a similar workshop with the young people at Alyth so that they can send one back. You can read the poem here, The Queen, Pancakes and the Wailing Wall.

We also managed to fit in some sightseeing and here we are on the beach at the Black Sea. Its absolutely freezing but the next day we had beautiful weather. If you go to the Crimea, make sure you take lots of layers. Mike says he swims in the sea in the summer but I couldn't even bear to take my hat off!

Kerch is an ancient city. It is littered with Ancient Greek remains. It used to be the biggest shipbuilding centre in the Soviet Union. Brezhnev stayed at our hotel. It is also a town with wide streets, beautiful squares and many monuments to its very difficult history during WW2.
Kerch was occupied twice by the Germans and Stalin named it one of only 13 Hero Cities alongside Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev, because of the terrible suffering they had to endure. Here I am standing next to the monument to the Hero City.

In Kiev we found the monument to all the Hero Cities with casks containing earth from each one and we took a picture of the Kerch casket.

When the Nazis invaded Kerch for the first time in November 1941, they rounded up all the Jews, 7,000 people and shot them in an anti-tank ditch outside a village near Kerch. The place is called Bagerov Ravine and this is the monument the Soviets put up after the war. But it only cites Soviet citizens like all Holocaust memorials in the FSU. So the community is putting up its own monument to the Jewish dead in May this year.

I wrote a poem using material I researched in the Jewish Museum in the Community Centre about what happened to the Jews of Kerch Nobody Understands This.

The Youth Club and religion school did a presentation for the Community on the Sunday morning, April 11th, an enormously significant date. It was Erev Yom Ha Shoah, the Jewish memorial to the Holocaust and it was also Liberation Day for Kerch. In the photos below you can see a re-enactment of the shootings at Bagerov Ravine and a presentation from the younger children. Yarhzheit candles, memorial candles for the dead, were also lit and you can see Mark lighting one below. It was so moving to be with this community on such an occasion and many of us were close to tears.

Nowhere in Kerch is quite complete without its cat. This is a photo of Moshe, the synagogue cat. He is quite old and he likes nothing better than sitting under the table during the Shabbat prayers.

And of course, despite our good intentions to learn loads of Russian we couldn't have survived without our wonderful interpreter, Anya ( in the red jumper next to Geoff Short who will take over organising the Kerch trips in the future.)
 Anya's English was so remarkable and she was so conscientious that she studied technical vocabulary so that she could translate 'enrichment of iron ore' on our tour of Kerch!
 I only got as far as harasho which means OK and pyat peeva which means five beers and was not awfully useful!

It was very hard to say goodbye to all our newfound friends. But on Sunday afternoon weset off for two amazing days in Kiev. Here we are on one of the main squares  with the cathedral in the background and in blazing sunshine.We visited a lot of amazing monuments and marvelled at the huge River Dneiper. It makes the Thames look like a stream!

In Kiev we met Rabbi Alex Dukhovny. Here he is with one of our group, Dorothy Sefton-Green.
Alex is the Rabbi of all the Progressive Jewish Congregations in the Ukraine. Quite a job.

He took us on a visit to Babi Yar. It is thought that the Nazis shot 140,000 Jews there and maybe up to 200,000 people were killed there altogether -  a whole different blog and set of poems, yet to be written.

We read Yevtushenko's famous poem -


Over Babi Yar
there are no memorials. 
The steep hillside like a rough inscription.
I am frightened.
Today I am as old as the Jewish race........


Alex told us, "It is not only God who makes miracles. People make miracles too. You are part of the miracle of the re-emergence of Jewish communities in the Ukraine."
It was a very poignant moment and I felt proud to have played a tiny  part in this miracle.

We finally flew back to London on Wednesday morning as the Iceland volcano was filling the skies. At 6.00 am the sun was blood red in the sky, coloured by the dust, a portent of things to come.  That night they closed the airspace over Britain.

If you decide to go to Kerch, pack some candlesticks and your rough guide phrasebook, take a notebook for all the poems you will need to write and be prepared for a trip of a lifetime.