Tahir Hamut Izgil is the foremost poet from the Uyghur people, whose memoir Waiting to be Arrested at Night recounts the harrowing tale of his family’s escape from genocide. Joshua L. Freeman, who translated Izgil's memoir into English, will be the interpreter during the event.
Interviewer
Jamal Ouariachi
Photographer:
Asena Tahir Izgil
Author
Tahir Hamut Izgil
Tahir Hamut Izgil is a poet from the Uyghur ethnic minority, a group facing widespread persecution in China today. He grew up in Xinjiang, attended college in Beijing, and worked as a film director in the Uyghur region, before fleeing to the United States in 2017.
In 2018, Izgil was elected president of the World Uyghur Writers Union, the premier literary organization for Uyghur writers in exile, and his work has appeared in The New York Review of Books and The Atlantic, among others.
In 2023, Waiting to be Arrested at Night will be published, a poignant testimony about the Chinese genocide of the Uyghur people. It is the story of the political, social, and cultural destruction of Izgil’s homeland, and a call for the world to awaken to the unfolding catastrophe.