{"id":8082,"date":"2012-04-08T10:57:20","date_gmt":"2012-04-08T14:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=8082"},"modified":"2012-04-08T10:57:20","modified_gmt":"2012-04-08T14:57:20","slug":"times-union-on-zaqtan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/times-union-on-zaqtan\/","title":{"rendered":"Times Union on Zaqtan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Albany <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/\"><strong>Times Union<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0newspaper picks up the Ghassan Zaqtan visa story:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a title=\"Permanent Link to Palestinian poet\u2019s U.S. visit delayed over visa issues\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.timesunion.com\/localarts\/palestinian-poets-u-s-visit-delayed-over-visa-issues\/22581\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Palestinian poet\u2019s U.S. visit delayed over visa issues<\/a><\/h3>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">April 5, 2012 at 2:36 pm by\u00a0<a title=\"Posts by Michael Janairo, Arts &amp; Entertainment Editor\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.timesunion.com\/localarts\/author\/michaeljanairo\/\">Michael Janairo, Arts &amp; Entertainment Editor<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan is known for descriptive language and delicate narratives, dealing with history, exile and return.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Zaqtan, who is also a novelist, playwright and newspaper editor, is slated to discuss \u201cLike a Straw Bird It Follows Me,\u201d his first collection of poetry published in English. Zaqtan, however, hadn\u2019t yet arrived in the U.S. by Thursday afternoon. The local appearance is part of a two-week tour, originally scheduled to begin Tuesday in California, that is co-sponsored by groups hosting his readings and underwritten by the Poetry Foundation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The New York State Writers Institute announced on its<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewYorkStateWritersInstitute\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0that the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pen.org\/blog\/?p=10793\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0PEN American Center and the ACLU\u00a0<\/a>are pressing the State Department to grant the poet a visa. The organizations have suggested that the visa is being held up for political reasons.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Don Faulkner, director of the Writers Institute, says Zaqtan\u2019s work has a political component, but he is generally considered uncontroversial and has been involved with numerous \u2026 conferences and seminars.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWhat we\u2019ve gleaned is by all estimations he\u2019s very much seen as a a bridge-builder,\u201d says Faulkner. \u201cHe\u2019s regarded, at least in intellectual community in Israel, as a very positive force.\u201d The Writers Institute has received no complaints about booking Zaqtan, Faulkner says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If all goes as planned, Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah, who translated \u201cStraw Bird,\u201d will appear with Zaqtan.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If Zaqtan can\u2019t make it, Joudah, who recently won the Yale Younger Poets Prize for his own work, will still appear 4:15 p.m. seminar, 8 p.m. reading; Tuesday. Free. Standish Room, Science Library, UAlbany, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany. 442-5620;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.albany.edu\/writers-inst\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0http:\/\/www.albany.edu\/writers-inst<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Albany Times Union\u00a0newspaper picks up the Ghassan Zaqtan visa story: Palestinian poet\u2019s U.S. visit delayed over visa issues April 5, 2012 at 2:36 pm by\u00a0Michael Janairo, Arts &amp; Entertainment Editor The Palestinian poet&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,91,103],"tags":[1199,1193],"class_list":["post-8082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine","category-poetry","category-translation","tag-fady-joudah","tag-ghassan-zaqtan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8082"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8092,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8082\/revisions\/8092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}