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As a boy growing up in Sudan, Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin stole a book of horror stories by Edgar Allan Poe from under his brother's pillow. Those stories made him want to be a writer. But under the government of President Omar al-Bashir, being a writer was a dangerous business. Baraka faced detention and harrassment and though he went on to win major literary prizes, he also earned the unwanted title of Sudan's first-ever banned writer.

Baraka's latest book, Samahani, is out now.