October 18th forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog



We begin this week with the "amnesty" or commutation of sentences of some of the writers who have been held these past years in various prisons within Burma. The news agencies have done a great job identifying important spokespeople to put this action into perspective for us. In the first of three lead articles, we hear from Win Tin, a poet and activist who spent 19 years in prison himself. In the second, we hear from Hla Soe, a poet and activist who was just released. In a third article, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance issues an alert, looking at the numbers. All three of these articles discuss those who did not get released. For instance, even though Hla Soe is listed as a poet who has been released, at least two poets have not: Min Han, and Nyi Nyi Tun (a.k.a. Mee Doke).

Our second story is really part of the first, yet significantly different. A fourth poet, famous Burmese comedian Zarganar has been released as well. Even the guards were sharing his jokes.

There is so much more to follow, dozens of terrific articles in a busy week for poetry around the world. I'll leave the rest to your discovery.

Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

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