NIU Law Professor Receives Worldwide Attention with the Release of Poetry Written by Guantánamo Detainees

September 07, 2007

DeKalb, Ill. – It’s not often that poetry makes the front page of the Wall Street Journal. But the book, Poems from Guantnamo: The Detainees Speak, compiled and edited by Northern Illinois University College of Law Professor Marc Falkoff, did just that and became the talk of political pundits, literary experts, and human rights advocates worldwide.

Since the book’s August 1 release, Falkoff has conducted at least 50 interviews with reporters from around the globe regarding his role in collecting poetry written by Guantnamo Bay detainees, as well as for his work as pro bono counsel to 17 men imprisoned at the controversial detention camp. In addition to landing the Wall Street Journal’s lead headline on June 20, Falkoff and the book have been featured in many major metropolitan newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. Articles also appeared in The Writer Magazine, Slate Magazine and the German version of Vanity Fair, as well as in publications in Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, France, Sweden, and Yemen. Furthermore, Falkoff wrote the cover story for the Fall 2007 issue of Amnesty International Magazine, wherein he shares his personal experiences as counsel to the detainees and describes the obstacles he faced in bringing their poetry to the public.

Falkoff also appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including National Public Radio, Al Jazeera English TV, The Jon Elliott Radio Show, British Broadcasting Corporation, and Canada AM TV, France 24, and Reuters TV, as well as on an online podcast produced by the Poetry Foundation.

Poems from Guantnamo brings together 22 poems by 17 detainees, most still in legal limbo at Guantnamo Bay. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Falkoff, who has a Ph.D. in American Literature, and other pro bono attorneys who are providing counsel to the detainees, the collection gives voice to the men who have been held at the United States detention center under questionable circumstances.

Like the majority of the 400 detainees at Guantnamo Bay, Falkoff’s clients have been held at the camp for nearly five years without having charges filed against them and without being convicted of any wrongdoing, which he asserts is unlawful under both the Geneva Conventions and United States law. The United States government, however, contends that the detainees are “enemy combatants” and therefore are not protected by national or international law.

According to Falkoff, “The significance of these poems is to remind us that these are human beings being detained - not ‘vicious killers’ or ‘the worst of the worst’ as our government claims in the press. You will not find hatred in these poems. But you will find hope, disappointment, disillusionment, and faith as these men try to make sense of this horrible time in their lives.”

Prior to joining the NIU Law faculty in 2006, Professor Falkoff was an attorney at Covington & Burling in New York, where he was the principal lawyer in the habeas representation of 17 Yemeni men detained by the United States military at Guantnamo Bay. For this work, he was named the firm’s Charles F.C. Ruff Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year. He is a co-recipient, with other Guantnamo counsel, of the 2007 Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award from the Southern Center for Human Rights. He has also taught courses in post-conviction remedies and prisoners’ rights at Brooklyn Law School.

Also contributing to the book are Flagg Miller, a linguistic and cultural anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wrote the preface, and Ariel Dorman, the Walter Hines Page Chair of Literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, who wrote the afterword.

Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak can be ordered from the University of Iowa Press through its Web site at http://uipress.uiowa.edu or by calling 800-621-2736. Profits from the book will go to the Center for Constitutional Rights, a civil rights organization that has advocated extensively for litigation on behalf of the Guantánamo detainees.

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For more information, contact:
Melody Mitchell
Director, Alumni Events & Public Relations
(815) 753-9655
mmitchell@niu.edu