Celebrating World Poetry Day & Nowruz with Uyghur poetry
Celebrating World Poetry Day & Nowruz with Uyghur poetry
How to sustain Uyghur culture in the diaspora?
Uyghur PEN old websites:
English:
www.uyghurpen.org/about-pen.html
Uyghur Latin yéziqida:
www.uyghurpen.org/uyghurche.html
Uyghur Arab yéziqida:
www.uyghurpen.org/uy/index.html
Uyghur PEN Centre
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- Uyghur Poems
- A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs by Gulchehra Hoja review – a powerful testament of Uyghur persecution
- Heart and Soul: The Uighur Poets
- Communist China’s Genocidal Crackdown on Uyghur Intellectuals
- “But a thorn was left in our tongue …”
- The Poetry of Trauma – Webinar
Uyghur PEN Centre
Uyghur Poems
Edited by Aziz Isa ElkunTranslated by Aziz Isa Elkun and othersPublished: 26/10/2023EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY POCKET POETSPenguin Random House An unprecedented collection of poems spanning the rich two-thousand-year cultural legacy of the Uyghur people of Central Asia. EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY POCKET POETS. The Uyghurs have a long and glorious history of poetry, dating from the oral epics of the second century BCE through the elegant love poetry of the medieval period and up to the present moment -and much of it has never before been translated into English. Uyghur poetry reflects the magnificent natural landscapes at the heart of the Silk Road region, with its endless steppes, soaring mountain ranges, and vast deserts, as well as its turbulent history. Turkic, Sufi, and Persian influences have shaped the poetic tradition over the centuries, and more recently the modernism of the twentieth century left its mark as well. In the face of the systematic persecution of the Uyghurs in China today, which has driven many of their poets into exile, including the editor and translator of this volume, Aziz Isa Elkun, who lives in London. Uyghur Poems is not only a remarkable one-volume tour of an ancient and vibrant poetic tradition but also a vital witness to a threatened culture. EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY POCKET POETSPenguin Random Househttps://www.penguin.co.uk/books/457502/uyghur-poems/9781841598307 Uyghur Poems Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Uyghur-Poems-Everymans-Library-Pocket/dp/1101908343 _________________________________
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A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs by Gulchehra Hoja review – a powerful testament of Uyghur persecution
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Heart and Soul: The Uighur Poets
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Communist China’s Genocidal Crackdown on Uyghur Intellectuals
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“But a thorn was left in our tongue …”
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The Poetry of Trauma – Webinar
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Adil Tunyaz, a well-known Uyghur poet, arrested in 2017, and his fate is unknown
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Keeping the Uyghur Culture Alive in Exile
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#100PENMembers No. 87: Ahtam Omer
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China – Xinjiang: Severe prison sentences for Uyghur writers is latest example of government efforts to erase Uyghur culture
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Ahtam Omar, a prominent Uyghur writer, sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in China
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Whereabouts, Well-Being of Renowned Uyghur Poet Unknown Three Years After Detention
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Xinjiang Authorities Sentence Prominent Uyghur Author to 20 Years in Prison
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For PEN’s Poets: reflections by Jennifer Clement, President of PEN International
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Celebrating World Poetry Day & Nowruz Festival with Uyghur poetry
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Keeping the Uyghur Culture Alive in Exile
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Qurban Mamut, a retired Uyghur editor held incommunicado in China
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Xinjiang Authorities Detain Prominent Uyghur Journalist in Political ‘Re-Education Camp’
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Omerjan Hasan was arrested in April 2016 and his fate is unknown
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Perhat Tursun, Uyghur poet and writer sentenced for 16 years imprisonment
The Uyghur PEN Centre
Uyghur PEN Centre was formally accepted as a member of PEN International during the Assembly of Delegates of the 74th International PEN World Congress on 6th October 2008 in Bogota, Colombia.
Uyghur PEN Centre is dedicated to promoting freedom of expression, thought and information for all. It stands in solidarity with writers everywhere who have been forced into silence by censorship. Uyghur PEN’s main activities are to protect and raise awareness of arrested Uyghur writers, poets, journalists and artistsin the Uyghur homeland of East Turkistan (Xinjiang, China).
Currently, the Uyghur PEN Board Member Aziz Isa Elkun, a London based Uyghur poet and academic, is the Director of Uyghur PEN Centre Online Revitalisation Project.
Uyghur PEN Centre currently has 44 active members.
Uyghur PEN is now 13 years old; what we have achieved?
Uyghur PEN Centre is now 12 years old.When he established Uyghur PEN Centre in 2006, the first president Kurash Kusan believed in peaceful dialogue in the face of ethnic tension, suspicion and hatred, and this remains the core of Uyghur PEN’s philosophy. Today, his dream of a PEN centre dedicated promoting free speech in East Turkistan and Central Asia is thriving. Our membership is steadily growing, as well as our programs. In 2009 we helped launch the Ural-Altaic PEN Network and in February 2010, then Uyghur PEN opened an office in Lund, Sweden. It’s office moved to London since 2017.
In April 2010, Uyghur PEN Centre launched its English-Uyghur bilingual official website www.uyghurpen.orgwhich is active until today. 2010 also marks our first international campaign for the release of the writer Nurmuhemmet Yasin. We are also working on a public database to track the harassment and imprisonment of writers in Xinjiang.
Through the efforts of our members in Kazakhstan we publish a seasonal literary magazine “Uyghur PEN Magazine” (in Uyghur and Russian languages) beginning in 2013.
In 2009, Uyghur PEN Centre and other PEN centres teamed up to create a new regional PEN network, the Ural-Altaic PEN Network. The network groups a string of countries across Europe and Asia (from Finland and Hungary in the west to Korea and Japan in the east) where Uralic or Altaic languages are spoken.
On 28 August 2017, for the first time, Swedish, Uyghur, Tibetan and Independent Chinese PEN Centres came together and successfully held “The First International Conference of Four-PEN Platform” in Malmö City hall in Sweden. At the end of the conference, Uyghur Centre held its board members meeting and member’s election. During the meeting, Aziz Isa Elkun, board member, was elected as secretary of Uyghur PEN Centre.
Since 2017, many western media have reported that more than a million Uyghurs are detained in China’s internment camps in East Turkistan (Xinjiang/China) including numerous Uyghur academics, writers, journalists, artists and public figures. China has enforced a communication blockade for the Uyghurs between home and abroad, and foreign reporters have been banned from reporting from the region.
Uyghur PEN Centre has been focusing on the internment camps, working in collaboration with other PEN Centres and Human Rights NGOs to protect and raise awareness of arrested Uyghur writers, poets, journalists, artists. We were very pleased to be able to attend PEN International 84thWorld Congress in Pune, India from 25-29 September 2018. During the Congress, we attended the panel of Writers in Prison Committee, where we presented on the situation of arrested Uyghur writers and academics, as well as the crisis of “concentration camps” in East Turkistan, and we urged worldwide PEN Centres to take action to defend Uyghur rights. At the end of Congress, a resolution on the People’s Republic of China was approved by the Assembly of Delegates of PEN International.
In November 2018, we organized a large-scale “Uyghur Culture Night” event in Londonin collaboration with the Uyghur Community UK, to raise awareness of the issues.We are actively searching for future collaborations with other PEN Centres, as well as maintaining effective communication with PEN International Secretariat. [Full]
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