Amanuel Asrat

Amanuel Asrat is credited with reviving Eritrean poetry in the early 2000s. He founded Saturday’s Supper, a literary platform that inspired arts clubs across Eritrea, and was editor-in-chief and co-founder of Zemen, where he reported on government abuses.

He won national awards, including for The Scourge of War, translated into 16 languages, and received the 2016 Oxfam Novib/PEN Freedom of Expression Award and 2020 PEN Pinter Prize. On 23 September 2001, he was arrested during a crackdown on independent media. He was held at Eiraeiro prison before transfer in 2016 to an unknown facility. His whereabouts remain unknown, and he is believed among the few surviving detainees.