WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS:
PEN Canada Literary Tour for Freedom of Expression
In Partnership with WordFest
Thursday, April 3, 7:30pm
Calgary Public Library, John Dutton Theatre, 616 Macleod Trail SE
$10 suggested admission

Featuring:
Afua Cooper is an eminent and award-winning author, historian, poet, curator, performer, cultural worker, and recording artist. She was chosen by the editors of Essence Magazine (Oct 2005) as one of the 25 women who are shaping the world. Her most recent history publication The Hanging of Angélique, The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal was nominated for the 2006 Governor-General’s Award in nonfiction.

An ethnic Kurd from Iraq, Jalal Barzanji is a recognized poet and journalist who had a long literary career before he was forced to leave the country in 1998. He has published hundreds of articles and poems about human, cultural and women’s rights and six books of poetry and fiction. Since coming to Canada, Barzanji has continued to write and has published several volumes of poetry in Kurdish. Barzanji is currently PEN Writer in Exile in the City of Edmonton.

Sheng Xue grew up in Beijing. She moved to Canada soon after the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. In 2000, she won the Canadian Association of Journalists Award for Investigative Journalism and the National Magazine Award, for an investigative report on the lives of Chinese boat refugees. In 2001, Sheng Xue investigated China’s most prominent smuggling case and published a book (in Chinese), Unveiling the Yuan Hua Case, which was immediately banned by China’s Propaganda Ministry.

For more information visit: http://www.wordfest.com/festival_schedule.php?event_id=677