We Spoke with the Editors Involved in the Refugees Worldwide Project

We spoke to members of Ragpicker Press and Berlin International Literature Festival about a collaborative initiative to highlight stories of modern refugees.
There are perhaps few issues as hotly debated today as the refugee crisis. To keep borders open or close them up is a political issue being contended in many Western countries. Which is how Refugees Worldwide an initiative spearheaded by the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin in the Summer of 2016 came to be. In their words, “Refugees Worldwide seeks to collect and convey experiences, impressions and information about different refugee situations, both in a European and non-European contexts.”
The Refugees Worldwide anthology includes the work of 14 writers who reported from all around the globe, including places where conflict has sparked mass migration and reported back with literary narratives. These include pieces on countries such as El Salvador, South Sudan, and Syria from writers such as Mohammed Hanif (A Case of Exploding Mangoes), Ece Temelkuran (The Women Who Blow on Knots), Najat El Hachmi (The Last Patriach) and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Season of Crimson Blossoms). An English edition is being published by the UK-based independent literary publisher Ragpicker Press, who are currently taking orders for the book, to which proceeds will be donated to Refugees International. They describe the contents of the anthology thus: “A Syrian man watches his friends depart, a Turkish woman decides she herself must leave; a Congolese asylum seeker confronts Japanese bureaucracy, an Afghan gets a hero’s welcome in Lithuania. Somalis flee to Kenya, Pakistanis to Indonesia, Salvadorans to Belize, Haitians to Brazil. The refugee crisis in Nigeria, Sudan, Ukraine, Greece; a world in flux.”
We spoke to the projects co-founders Luisa Donnerberg and Lucy Curzon literary as well as translator and Ragpicker Press editor Jethro Soutar, to know more about the project, the press’s involvement, and the challenges of reporting in war-torn or impoverished regions.
How did the idea for the Refugees Worldwide project come about?
LD: In 2015, Ulrich Schreiber, director of the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, had the idea to organize a world tour with a group of authors. That same year, the refugee crisis in Europe came into explosive focus, and he wanted to bring the two things together. The idea developed into one in which the team at the festival would work remotely, but closely, with authors around the world to develop a set of literary texts about the refugee crisis. Crucially, Schreiber wanted to bring a global focus to the topic, shining a light not only upon the situation in Europe. Also key was the desire for novelists to approach the topic: Schreiber wanted the writing to offer a contrast to traditional pieces of journalism, insisting on the individuality of people’s stories.
What were some of the challenges in gathering the material?
LC: As well as operating on a tight-time frame, the most significant challenge for the team at the festival was the frequency of last-minute changes to the project. The author Ece Temelkuran, for example, had to abruptly abandon the interviews for her piece and flee. This unexpected event became part of her reportage. Due to the remoteness of the locations, communication with certain authors while they were undertaking their research was also difficult. After the material had been gathered, the texts had to be translated into German and English before the team could properly communicate their suggestions to the authors; this process of editing and discussion had to be done in a short space of time and with the generosity of many who offered their expertise at a low cost.