In 1986, under the regime of Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq, Kurdish writer Jalal Barzanji was imprisoned. His crime: freedom of expression.

“I was writing about peace, beauty and human rights,” says Barzanji, “but when Saddam Hussein was in power, there was no space for independent writers. You had to belong to the regime. If you believed in multiculturalism and people’s right to an opinion, you would be in danger. When you write, you try to bring change, and that’s why they put me in jail.”

After three years in prison, Barzanji was pardoned, but he remained fearful of government reprisals. When Iraqi troops began a new assault on Kurds, he escaped with his wife and three children to Turkey, and soon emigrated to Canada.

When he arrived in Edmonton in 1998, Barzanji found it difficult to adjust to the strange new world. “I did not speak any English,” he says, “and it was especially difficult because, when I came, I was 45. It is hard for people to learn a new language at a late age. I had to work hard to learn English and support my family, and I didn’t have time to write.”

After a decade working with Edmonton’s international communities, Barzanji was appointed the city’s official Writer-in-Exile in September 2007. The one-year position gives him precious time to write — he’s hard at work on a prison memoir, to be translated into English from Kurdish — and to help other immigrant writers return to their craft. “I help them share their talent and their work,” says Barzanji. “I try to build a bridge between them and Canadian readers and writers.”

Barzanji, alongside Afua Cooper and Sheng Xue, hits Calgary for Words Without Borders, presented by PEN Canada and WordFest at the W.R. Castell Central Library (616 Macleod Tr. S.E.) on April 3, 7:30 p.m. ($10 suggested admission). For information about the Words Without Borders tour, and its stops in Edmonton and Vancouver, visit www.pencanada.ca.

Maybe you’ve heard: the Juno Awards are in town. Kind of a big deal, but the flywheel reading series doesn’t stop for anything — and this month, series organizers team up with Single Onion for flying Onion — Writing Also Lives Here! The evening will feature readings by rob mclennan, Andrew Wedderburn and Paul Marshall, and will be hosted by Emily Elder and Dale Herrington with music by The Jagatha Christies. Join them at McNally Robinson (120 Eighth Ave. S.W.) on April 3, 7 p.m.

Dragan, a Yugoslav peasant, and Galina, a child of Stalinist Russia, met and married in the chaos following the Second World War. In her new book, Chance, their daughter-in-law Anne Metikosh has captured their story. Meet the author alongside the real-life subjects of her book at the Military Museums (4520 Crowchild Tr. S.W.) on April 4, 7 p.m.

The Junos may not have a category for spoken word, but these dynamic poets will put a song in your heart! The second event in the 2008 Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, Smart Men with Hot Words, will spotlight a quintet of gentlemen wordsmiths guaranteed to rock the stage. Hosted by Kevin Brooker and Grant Burns of CJSW’s Road Pops, Kris Demeanor, Ian Ferrier, Dwayne Morgan, Kirk Ramdath and Richard Harrison perform at the Auburn Saloon (163 115 Ninth Ave. S.E.) on April 4, 8 p.m., $10.

For 20 years, the Stage One New Play Development Series at Lunchbox Theatre has produced original scripts by Canadian playwrights. Four by Four by Four, a new anthology, collects four one-act plays that emerged from the process: Borrow Me by Clem Martini, The Wild Guys by Becky Shaw & Andrew Wreggit, Shopaholic by Glenda Stirling and Monkey Business by Nicole Zylstra. The playwrights read from their work at Pages Books (1135 Kensington Rd N.W.) on April 5, 7:30 p.m.

NDP leader Jack Layton makes a stop in Calgary this week for an intimate signing of his new book, Homelessness: How to End the National Crisis. Combining research, anecdotes and expert analysis (including testimonies from homeless individuals), the book offers insights and solutions to Canada’s housing issues. Join him at Pages Books on April 6, 1 p.m.

OK, you’ve read the Stage One anthology, but what about Lunchbox Theatre’s next batch of original one-act plays? The 20th anniversary of the Petro-Canada Stage One Plays kicks off this week, with public readings of six new scripts: Submarine by Michelle Deines, Going Public by Kico Gonzalez-Risso, Bear Belles by Nicholas Hanson, When All is Said and Done by Kelle Ngan, O Tannenbaum by Gordon Portman and Seven Games by James O’Shea. The readings take place from April 7 to 19; for a full schedule, visit www.lunchboxtheatre.com.

In the penultimate edition of Monday Night Shakespeare, Dr. James Black delves into The Winter’s Tale I with a lecture entitled Sicilia. Only two more chances to catch this popular series before it’s over, so head down to the Boris Roubakine Recital Hall (Craigie Hall, University of Calgary) on April 7, 7:30 p.m., for a tantalizing taste of the Bard.

When you’re doodling or drooling at the back of a crowded university lecture hall, do you ever wonder what it’s like up front? The U of C’s latest Brown Bag Pedagogy Seminar is Herding Cats 101: Teaching the Large Lecture Section, in which professors Lorne Macdonald, David Oakleaf and Vivienne Rundle from the Department of English will talk about the art of education in Social Sciences 1015 (University of Calgary) on April 9, 12:30 p.m.

Florentine Strzelczyk, of the U of C’s department of Germanic, Slavic and East Asian Studies, presents Performing Fascism: About the Curious Afterlife of Nazism in the Movies, exploring pop-culture representations of Nazism. The lecture takes place in Craigie Hall D100 (University of Calgary) on April 10, 4 p.m.