As far as I know, Ghassan Zaqtan still doesn’t have a visa for the US. He was supposed to be spending the first two weeks of April promoting Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me (2012, trans. Fady Joudah). From a reader:
Yesterday [April 5], I heard Fady Joudah read his translations of Ghassan Zaqtan’s poetry at SF State University. Zaqtan was supposed to be there, but was denied [a] visa to the US. …
His son had videorecorded him the previous day, though, reading some poems; so we watched the youtube video as a (beautiful) consolation.
This is outrageous. What is being done about it?
I saw that PEN, the ACLU, and the New York Writers Union were trying to put some pressure on the State Department, but it didn’t seem to get any traction or to bear any fruit.
“Wolves” in Spanish (in case someone is interested): http://anisdelmoro.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/la-ausencia-implacable.html
By the way, does anyone know why both Zaqtan and his English translator skip the penultimate verse of the original?