In recent years, many writers who once lived under repressive regimes have found new ways of speaking out about their experiences through their alliance with City of Asylum / Pittsburgh and Sampsonia Way magazine. Both entities have served as fora for creative expression and freedom of speech for writers in exile, enabling their voices to be heard on controversial topics – something that may put them in peril in their homelands. Now, through the written word, art exhibitions, and public performances in the US, they are now able to reach a global audience for their work. Such a platform has proved valuable for several Middle Eastern writers in particular, including Hind Shoufani (Palestine), Soheil Najm (Iraq), and Assumbanipal Babilla (Iran/Lebanon).
Two individuals key to bringing these voices to light are Silvia Duarte, Sampsonia Way’s Managing Editor, and Khet Mar, a Sampsonia Way staff writer, as well as City of Asylum writer in residence. Their path to City of Asylum and Sampsonia Way is paved by their experiences in their homelands, Guatemala and Burma respectively.
Silvia Duarte (Sampsonia Way’s Managing Editor)
Silvia Duarte grew up in Guatemala, a country brutalized by racism, violence and a 36 year conflict that would ultimately leave 100,000 dead, 50,000 disappeared, and 1 million displaced or homeless. Raised in the capital, Silvia - like many middle-class children in Guatemala City - didn’t know about the war and the massacres perpetrated against the rural indigenous population. As long as the bullets never reached their houses, their parents and teachers preferred that the children never knew about the .jpg)
conflict.
At 18, Silvia first heard the testimony of a Kakchiquel woman, who recounted during a daring confession details about how the army had kidnapped her brothers, and killed one of them in the vilest manner possible. This was the first of dozens of stories that Silvia would come to discover over time.
During the following years, Silvia dedicated herself to becoming informed, reading whatever she could get her hands on. She wanted to investigate the reality that she had been denied, and more importantly, to make it known to the public. When she finished her journalism degree at Universidad Rafael Landívar, she went to work for the Periódico de Guatemala, one of the nation’s top newspapers, beginning as a reporter, and promoted the next year to the editorship of the Sunday supplement, which she managed for five years. Under her supervision, the team published stories on a wide range of topics, including the psychological effect of war, displaced survivors, disarmament, juvenile gangs, racial discrimination, crimes against women, and drug trafficking. Because of this experience, Silvia came to believe in journalism as a way to develop countries and as an effective forum to build democracies.
After completing her Masters in Latin American studies from the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain, she relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the end of 2007, where her partner Horacio Castellanos Moya was City of Asylum’s writer in residence. In 2010 Silvia received a grant from City of Asylum to run Sampsonia Way Magazine, and she is now working as a journalist, promoting and defending the work of other journalists and writers who face the same risks that Irma Flaker, Luis de Lion and Alaide Foppa did. More than the any other recognition, this is the achievement about which she is the most proud.
Khet Mar (Sampsonia Way staff writer / City of Asylum writer in residence)
Khet Mar was a leader and participant of the pro-democracy movement in Burma that began in 1988. She was arrested, incarcerated, and tortured for her political activism during this time. When she was released from prison she worked as a journalist and social worker. In 2004 Khet Mar began secretly providing aid such as food and books for political prisoners in spite of government threats of arrest. In 2005 she began working as a volunteer teacher in the non-government funded Monastic Orphanage Education School, fundraising heavily for the school in an attempt to bring education to those who couldn’t afford it. 
When Cyclone Nargis, which caused the worst natural disaster in Burma in recorded history, landed in Burma and caused the deaths of more than 100,000 people, Khet Mar abandoned her personal and professional plans in order to aid cyclone survivors. She did this, again, in spite of government threats of persecution.
In 2009 Khet Mar was interrogated by intelligence officers for 20 straight hours and released. She left Burma in March of that year in fear of another arrest and became writer-in-residence of City of Asylum / Pittsburgh where she lives with her husband and two sons. From Pittsburgh Khet Mar continues fundraising for the Monastic Orphanage Education School, as well as a new school she opened with a friend in Burma Shortly after arriving in Pittsburgh Khet Mar, operating with a friend in Burma, opened a new school in Burma called Aye Yeit. Khet Mar is responsible for raising funds for the school and sharing information on the school to donors. Since June 2011 Khet Mar has worked as a staff writer for Sampsonia Way, where she covers Burmese news and serves as a contact person for Burmese artists, writers, and journalists in Burma.
More about Khet Mar’s story can be found here.
