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Seven Stories Press

Works of Radical Imagination

Book cover for Autodafe 2
Book cover for Autodafe 2Book cover for Autodafe 2Book cover for Autodafe 2

Agra [Athens] ∙ Anagrama [Barcelona] ∙ Asa [Porto] ∙ Denoël [Paris] ∙ Feltrinelli [Milan] ∙ Ikusager [Vitoria] ∙ Pangloss [Moscow] ∙ Serpent’s Tail [London] ∙ Seven Stories [New York]

Autodafe is an Amnesty International collection of reports, interviews, correspondence, narratives, and stories from around the world. The review aims to be a place for debate and experimentation, a place where writers silenced by censorship join voices with world-renowned writers. The contributors are all members of the International Parliament of Writers; the pieces are original to Autodafe. The journal's common themes are the reflection of social and political realities of the world, censorship, the interdict of language, and the effects of globalization, among others.

The second volume of Autodafe revolves around the problem of the untouchable: "For a writer, the untouchable is what stands in the way of creation and simultaneously guides it." (Christian Salmon) Autodafe, Volume 2 includes Jovica Acin's (Serbia) divination through the ashes; Bei Dao's (China) journal of his readings; Stanko Cerovic (Montenegro) on the rock of Poseidon; Varlam Chalamov's (Russia) bookshelves; Alia Mamdouch (Iraq) on cities dying in our arms; Bashkim Shehu's (Albania) anatomy of Enver Hoxhas library; Mehmed Uzun's (Turkey) slap; a dialogue between Mary Gaitskill and Rick Moody (U.S.); and writings by Svetlana Alexievitch (Russia), Malek Aloula (Algeria), Nurrudin Farah (Somalia), Madeleine Mukamabano (Rwanda), Viktor Pelevin (Russia), and Shashi Tharoor (India), among others.

Book cover for Autodafe 2
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Autodafe is full of interesting, well-written and alarming material, from writers all over the world, both famous and less famous. It offers a valuable and at times disturbing report on the state of literary freedom at the beginning of the 21st century.”

Amnesty International

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is a worldwide campaigning movement that works to promote all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. In particular, Amnesty International campaigns to free all prisoners of conscience; ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners; abolish the death penalty, torture, and other cruel treatment of prisoners; end political killings and “disappearances”; and oppose human rights abuses by opposition groups. Their collection of reports, interviews, correspondence, and narratives from arround the world are gathered in Autodafe.