School of Critical Studies

9th December, Glasgow University Chapel, 5.30pm - 7.30pm

A special event to celebrate I Am A Rohnigya (Arc, 2019) featuring editors James Byrne and Shehzar Doja as well as readings recorded from the Cox’s Bazaar camps in Bangladesh, “where over 1 million Rohingya people live in perilous conditions”.

The Rohingya poets gathered here for the first time in English hold a mirror to the light for the rest of humanity, flashing their poems of misery and warning from the genocidal zone and refugee camp of Cox's Bazaar. Their songs are more accurate than news reports for word of the plight of the most oppressed. These are poems that begin with the fragrance on the bird's handkerchief and end by walking among the mass graves. They write from a dire present to a possible future, wondering in their peril if the world outside was too quiet to hear them. Let the world not be quiet, let the world listen to these poems. - Carolyn Forché

I Am a Rohingya implores the world to listen to the spirit of a people who have experienced some of the worst human rights abuses on the planet. These poems have no alternative but to speak out, they are from a crisis that must be addressed. There is brilliance in here! - John Kinsella

Shehzar Doja and James Byrne will be in conversation with Dr Colin Herd and the event will conclude with a Q&A. Books will be available for purchase

---

First published: 19 November 2019