Episode 14 – No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison
In this episode of The Ask award-winning author, activist and journalist Behrouz Boochani discusses his work on his debut novel NO FRIENDS BUT THE MOUNTAINS: WRITINGS FROM MANUS PRISON.
About the book:
In 2013, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island, a refugee detention centre off the coast of Australia.
This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi.
It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait of five years of incarceration and exile.
Our Episode Guest:
Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer.
He was held in the Australian-run Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea from 2013 until its closure in 2017.
His memoir, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, won the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Nonfiction in January 2019. The book was tapped out on a mobile phone in a series of single messages over time and translated from Persian into English by Omid Tofighian.
His work includes articles for newspapers around the world like The Guardian, films like Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time, and poetry like The Black Kite & The Deep Dark.
His latest published work is the anthology: Writing Through Fences – Archipelago of Letters.
Writing Through Fences, is devoted entirely to the work of past and present refugees in these detention centers.
Behrouz Boochani is now a free man in New Zealand and continues to speak out forcefully about refugees detained in places like the Park hotel prison; Nauru; Port Moresby and around the world.
Our Episode Guest Co-Host:
Cliff W. Gilmore, PhD, holds a doctorate in organization and management with a specialization in leadership, strategic and crisis communication and media relations.
Cliff now lives with his wife and ten-year-old daughter in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he is a writer, consultant, and leadership coach.
The Ask 
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