ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service writer residency begins
The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service has been the home of many great writers across the decades. Journalists have have worked for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ by day and have written poetry and novels at night. Among them are names like George Orwell, who worked for the World Service during the war; the Nobel prize-winning novelist VS Naipaul who worked for the Caribbean Service in the 1950s; and the Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov who worked at Bush House until he was assassinated by the KGB using a poison-tipped umbrella. Even today several novelists, poets, historians are on the staff or work freelance for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service.
In the spirit of these great writers, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service takes great pleasure in appointing the Uzbek novelist and poet Hamid Ismailov as the World Service Writer-in-residence. Once a week over the next two years Hamid will be writing creatively about events in the news, issues that have grabbed the world's attention, and occasionally on the day-to-day life of the many different people and cultures that work for the World Service.
Look for his first post here on 10 May, 2010.
Writer in residence Hamid Ismailov is an Uzbek novelist and poet. His work is banned in Uzbekistan and under threat of arrest he moved to London and joined ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service as a journalist. He is now head of the Central Asian service. 