In this episode, writers from across the globe, including Russian poet Tatiana Voltskaya with Russian writer and translator Elina Alter, Uyghur poet Tahir Hamut with historian and translator Joshua L. Freeman, and Turkish novelist Burhan Sönmez, join in solidarity to share powerful messages of resistance, resilience, and hope responding to injustice in their parts of the world.

First, Tatiana Voltskaya shares a poem about how the past haunts us, and how having a terrible foundation, metaphorically and also literally being built on a swamp, has made St. Petersburg, and Russia, dangerous and frightening. Next, Tahir Hamut reads “What is It?,” a poem he wrote shortly after fleeing persecution in the Uyghur region, and which reflects his inner turmoil in having to leave home for safety in America and is filled with imagery of his distant homeland. Finally, Burhan Sönmez shares a new reflection on the complicated feeling of home, as his memories of a less than idyllic childhood confront the current harsh realities of crumbling democracy in his native Turkey.

PEN America thanks the following sponsors for their support of the 2020 PEN World Voices Festival:

The National Endowment for the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (New York City)
Amazon Literary Partnership
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Acton Family Giving