ISBN: 978-1-77086-711-6 | Non-Fiction | $29.95 | Pub date: Oct 21, 2023 | Digital ARC Available
The sixteen writers and journalists in The Uncaged Voice come from countries all over the world, fleeing persecution for standing up for the freedom of the press and personal expression. The pieces in this collection range from a Syrian journalist being held prisoner and tortured for eight years over a single article, to escaping an abusive arranged marriage in India, to a selection from a novel about the author’s childhood growing up in Iran after the 1979 revolution. The writers in this collection are ready to step from the edge of their cages and take flight, their voices uniquely their own.
The pieces of writing in The Uncaged Voice can be brutal and heart-rending, but they also show the strength and resilience of the journalists and writers from countries where freedom of expression is only an ideal, and not a reality. These writers are all refugees, from such places; theirs are voices that speak to a world in which totalitarian forces attempt to subjugate, if not annihilate, all dissention. With introductions by Mary Jo Leddy and editor Keith Ross Leckie.
Keith Ross Leckie (Canada) is a scriptwriter and novelist with credits for many movies and mini-series for Canadian and American television. His novels include the best-selling Coppermine and Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys, both of which are being adapted for screen. Leckie has been a member of the Writers in Exile group of PEN Canada and worked with the Romero House refugee centre for many years. He lives in in Toronto, Ontario.
Mary Jo Leddy (Canada) is a writer, speaker, theologian, and social activist. She is widely recognized for her work with refugees at Toronto’s Romero House. She is the author of numerous books, including At the Border Called Hope: Where Refugees Are Neighbours, Our Friendly Local Terrorist, and The Other Face of God: When the Stranger Calls Us Home. Her works have been finalists for Toronto Book Award and the Trillium Book Award. In 1996, she received the Order of Canada.
Contributors
Aaron Berhane (Eritrea) was a founder and editor-in-chief of the largest independent newspaper in Eritrea when the government ordered a crackdown on journalists and was forced to escape under a hail of bullets. He passed away in 2021.
Gezahegn M. Demissie (Ethiopia) is an award-winning journalist, writer, and filmmaker. When the increasingly oppressive Ethiopian government suspended PEN Ethiopia’s licence, he and three other harassed journalists fled into exile in Canada. Demissie is leader of the Writers in Exile Committee of PEN Canada and currently edits the community journal New Perspectives.
Alexander Duarte (Venezuela) is a journalist. He worked for El Nacional, one of the most read newspapers in Venezuela, and as director of media and public relations with the Attorney General of Venezuela until the new regime came into power at which time he and his journalist wife received death threats and fled to Canada.
Ava Homa (Iraqi Kurdish) is a Kurdish writer, journalist, and activist who was born in Iran, where she was a university teacher before leaving to find freedom in Canada.
Dishaly Ilamaran (Sri Lanka) is a dedicated student at Carleton University, pursuing a dual degree in Journalism and Law. Hailing from Canada since 2016, she is the daughter of Ilamaran Nagarasa. With a passion for storytelling and legal advocacy, Dishaly is committed to weaving together her cultural roots and academic pursuits in her journey of learning and growth.
Abdulrahman Matar (Syria) is a Syrian Canadian journalist, novelist, and poet as well as a board member of the Syrian Writers Association and managing editor of Awraq magazine who spent eight years in a Syrian prison for his writing.
Ilamaran Nagarasa, (Sri Lanka) known as Maran, is a freelance journalist, human rights activist, and refugee advocate originally from Sri Lanka who was imprisoned as a Tamil terrorist for more than a year after arriving in Vancouver.
Luis Horacio Nájera (Mexico) is an award-winning journalist born in Mexico who has been a refugee in Canada since 2008 after receiving death threats because he reported on drug cartels and corruption along the US-Mexico border.
Kiran Nazish (Pakistan) is a Pakistani journalist covering conflict and human rights. After suffering many years of threats and intimidation in Pakistan she fled to Canada. She is the founder and director of the Coalition for Women in Journalism.
To request a copy, book the author for an interview and/or other content, or for more information, please contact Basil Sylvester, Publicity and Promotions Assistant, by email b.sylvester@cormorantbooks.com, or by phone at 416.925.8887 ext. 2
Pedro A. Restrepo (Colombia) is a writer, journalist, interpreter, and human rights activist who is the author of books of poetry, a novel, and works on pedagogy. He left his beloved Colombia when his father was murdered for his political beliefs.
Maria Saba (Iran) is a writer, storyteller, and arts educator originally from Iran. She has published three books and over a hundred articles, interviews, and stories.
Kaziwa Salih, PhD, (Iraq) an expelled Kurd, is the award-winning author of several fiction and non-fiction books, as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of two journals, Nivar and Newkar.
Mahdi Saremifar (Iran) is an Iranian journalist. He was a science correspondent for Hamshahri, one of the most read newspapers in Iran, and editor-in-chief of an Iranian popular science magazine. He was forced to leave Iran when the science he was reporting conflicted with the doctrines of the Supreme Leader.
Bilal Sarwary (Afghanistan) is an Afghan journalist who has worked extensively with western media outlets over the last twenty years in Afghanistan including the BBC for fourteen years. His name was on the Taliban execution list. He escaped the country in August 2021 as the Taliban closed in.
Savithri (India) is a freelance journalist and author with a passion for writing stories about politics and human rights who works as a translator, columnist, and novelist. She grew up in Kerala, India, was forced into an abusive marriage by her family, and left the country in 2010, unable to adapt to the patriarchal tendencies and conservatism of Indian society.
Arzu Yildiz (Turkey) is a Turkish-born award-winning investigative journalist, senior reporter, editor, public speaker, and the author of four books. Yildiz was the recipient of the 2021 PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship and is currently on a Turkish government terrorist list. She wrote articles on government corruption and had to escape an arrest warrant, leaving her children behind.
To request a copy, book the author for an interview and/or other content, or for more information, please contact Basil Sylvester, Publicity and Promotions Assistant, by email b.sylvester@cormorantbooks.com.
