The Editors:
Ren Powell, Babel Fruit Editor -in-Chief
Ren Powell, founding editor of Babel Fruit, is a member of the Norwegian Writers' Union and Norwegian PEN's Women Writers Committee representative. She helped to establish the International Cities of Refuge and worked as the project coordinator. She is a dramatist, poet and translator currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing. Her performance work has been staged in the US, Canada and Norway. She has two volumes of poetry and nine books of translations to her credit. More information can be found at her website. She also blogs Sidestepping Real.
Cati Porter, Assoc. Poetry Editor
Associate contributing editor Cati Porter grew up in a Persian-American household just outside of Los Angeles, California. An associate member of PEN American Center, she is a poet, freelance writer and reviewer. Her poetry collection Where We Dwell is forthcoming with Mayapple Press, and her chapbook small fruit songs was published in 2008 by Pudding House Press. Cati is also the founder and editor of Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry.
BA De Oliveira, Prose Editor
Associate editor B A De Oliveira is an American who lived for twelve years in the UK, only recently returning to the US where she resides in a small town in southern Michigan. She has an undergraduate degree in history and MAs in both education and creative writing. In addition to working as a writer and editor, De Oliveira is director of little bear creative - an agency specializing in graphic design, copywriting and other advertising/public relations-related projects.
Email: editors (at) babelfruit.org
Richard Pierce-Saunderson,
Staff reader
Having lived in England, Germany, France and Norway, Richard Pierce-Saunderson is fluent in three languages. He worked as an editor from 1986 to 2005 and is an avid reader. He writes both poetry and prose; his recent poems center on his experiences in the Antarctic. Richard Pierce-Sanderson graduated from St. John’s College, Cambridge and is currently living in Suffolk with his wife and four children, working for an English charity and editing his novel.
Writers are history’s storytellers, and each story must be told, heard and retold until each becomes our own story of human experience.
Supporting persecuted writers is a political act on the part of human rights activists and an act of solidarity on the part of PEN members. However, supporting freedom of speech is important to all of us, writers and readers alike. Please see our blog for more information: Censorship.
Babel Fruit is an independent initiative first developed in cooperation with the International Cities of Refuge Network. Babel Fruit is published quarterly, and in 2008, will begin nominating our contributors for the Pushcart and other awards.
Editorial Consultants:
Islam Elsanov
Islam Elsanov is a filmmaker and writer from Chechnya, a former Guest Writer of Stavanger City of Refuge. He has a MA in Literature from the Gorkij Writers Institute. For eight years, Islam Elsanov edited the literary journal Grozni and he also worked as a book editor for the Grozni publishing house. He is currently working on a feature-length historical documentary.
Nathalie Handal
Nathalie Handal is a Palestinian poet, playwright, writer and activist. Named one of the ten Arab writers of note by the San Francisco Chronicle. Handal has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. She received her MFA from Bennington College and her post-graduate degree from the University of London. Her work has appeared in magazines, literary journals and anthologies worldwide. She is the editor of The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology, an Academy of American Poets bestseller and winner of the Pen Oakland/Josephine Miles award. She is Poetry Books Review Editor for Sable and teaches at Columbia.
Lucy Popescu
Lucy Popescu is an author, editor and activist. She has chaired English PEN’s Writers and Prison Committee and has been an active member for over fifteen years. She writes a regular blog for The Guardian and a monthly column, Silenced Voices, for the Literary Review. She currently works for Rory Peck, an organization which promotes the welfare and safety of free-lance journalists.
Mansur Rajih,
Consulting Editor Mansur Rajih is a poet and writer from Yemen. Formerly a prisoner of conscience, then a Guest Writer in Stavanger City of Refuge, he is now awaiting publication of his fourth poetry book and touring the secondary schools as a poet-in-the-schools. Samples of his work in English can be found at Words Without Borders and in Arabic at Kikah.
Web Master:
Knut Ramstad, Logo and Design
Knut Roald Ramstad is an emerging graphic artist living in Norway. He is currently studying at Tastaveden. His work can be found at www.grafiknut.com
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