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INTERNATIONAL PARLIAMENT OF WRITERS EXPANDS PROJECTS

Now that the Network of Cities of Asylum is expanding worldwide to provide journalists and writers in exile with a place to live and write, the International Parliament of Writers (IPW) is expanding its programmes, reports the IPW in its bulletin "The Correspondence" (No. 5). Not only countries, but whole regions are getting involved in the Network of Cities of Asylum. In Spain, Albanian writer Bashkim Shehu, who arrived in Barcelona under the IPW's asylum programme in 1997, coordinates the Network of Cities of Asylum in Spain, and also helps choose candidates for refuge. (Contact him at e-mail:
bsh.bcn@netsic.com.) The Pompidou Centre in Paris and "La Casa Citlaltépetl" in Mexico City are new Places of Asylum as well.

Beyond offering refuge to writers, the IPW is expanding its programmes to give these writers fora where they can speak out. From 14 to 18 June, the IPW is organising "the first working seminar for writers housed in Cities of Asylum." IPW says, "Its purpose will be to organise international cooperation and publication forms through a network of newspapers, reviews and publishing houses." It will also discuss the IPW's plans to launch its website, "The Censored Library", in the second half of 1999.

The IPW is also planning to launch an international review to be published twice yearly in five languages in London, Berlin, Milan, Barcelona and Paris.