The International Cities of Refuge Network is an association of cities and regions around the world dedicated to the value of Freedom of Expression.
Protection
ICORN Cities offer persecuted writers a safe haven where they can live and work without fear of being censored or silenced.
Promotion
ICORN supports the artistic endeavours of its guest writers and promotes new spaces for intercultural dialogues worldwide.
ICORN at Kapittel 10
September 2010 Saved to Events, Festivals and Opportunities
At this year's Kapittel - Stavanger International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Expression - ICORN and Shahrazad - stories for life are happy to present a wide range of events and voices that will contribute in making Kapittel a truly international festival. The theme of Kapittel 10 is Memory - how does memory work in literature, and how is literature a contributing force for our memory? Among the distinguished guests hosted by ICORN is Moris Farhi, writer, Vice President of International PEN, and former Chair of the WiPC, who will deliver the ICORN lecture - The Courage to Forget.
Sampsonia Way opens new article series by interviewing Helge Lunde
August 2010 Saved to Network News
Sampsonia Way , an online magazine run by ICORN friend City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, are starting a series of interviews this fall, profiling writers who live in exile. To kick off this series, and to present the work ICORN does to protect writers, Elizabeth Hoover has interviewed Executive Director Helge Lunde. Sampsonia Way, the web magazine, is intended to provide the same shelter for writers and writing as Sampsonia Way, a Pittsburgh street lined with writer residences. Each defends free speech by protecting the people who actually do the writing and speaking. The homes provide shelter for writers; the magazine provides shelter for their work. We are happy to present an excerpt of the first interview in the series here at icorn.org, and look forward to following future articles.
ICORN participates in WALTIC
August 2010 Saved to Events, Festivals and Opportunities
In September, several ICORN Guest Writers, the ICORN Administration Center and Shahrazad - stories for life will participate in and meet with writers and translators from around the world at the second Writers' and Literary Translators' International Congress (WALTIC ) in Istanbul. Iranian Guest Writers Asieh Amini, Pegah Ahmadi (picture) and Parvin Ardalan will participate in a Shahrazad event discussing the current situation for writers and women's rights in Iran, and ICORN will be presented in a seminar on freedom of expression. In addition to this, ICORN Guest Writer Anisur Rahman has been invited to present a paper on the impact of NGOs on literacy and literature.
Visit Shahrazad!
Welcome to the Shahrazad website, a free space in Europe for writers from all over the world to tell their stories and to be heard.
Six ICORN cities are taking part in the Shahrazad project: Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Norwich, Stockholm and Stavanger. But writers from every corner of the world are invited to contribute words.
The Shahrazad project will set in motion a transnational dynamic of sharing and exchanging new stories. It will reach out specifically to individuals and groups unfamiliar with traditional literary and cultural activities. It will focus especially on children and young people who, through educational programmes, creative workshops and digital story production, will experience both the receiving and production ends of the Stories for Life chain of communication.
Ultimately, the Shahrazad project aims to provide Europe with new, more open and sustainable narratives about itself. By opening up to human and artistic impulses from ‘outside', Europe can regain and revitalise some of its capital values: freedom, democracy and solidarity.
Shahrazad is a European Union Culture 2007: multi-annual co-operation project
ICORN cities
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