Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is a product of the collaboration between one of the leading Uyghur poets, Tahir Hamut Izgil, and one of the most prolific English-language literary translators of works in Uyghur, Joshua Freeman. Izgil has become known in the West for his testimony before the US Congress regarding the atrocities the Chinese government is committing against Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang. Less known is his status in his homeland and throughout the Uyghur diaspora as a well-known writer and poet, and even less the risky journey he embarked on to escape China in 2017. By then, the Chinese government had confiscated the passports of nearly all Uyghurs, and the campaign of mass detention had begun. Most of his friends and relatives would be detained, and some, including the famous Uyghur writer Perhat Tursun, eventually were sentenced to lengthy terms in prison.
Waiting to Be Arrested at Night...
