Testimony: Found Poems from the Special Court for Sierra Leone

This stirring collection is derived from public testimonies at a UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Freetown, Sierra Leone. By rendering selected trial transcripts in poetic form, Shanee Stepakoff has provided new insights into the realities of the civil war of 1991-2002 and the suffering (as well as the dignity, courage, and strength of spirit) of the millions of people who were affected by it. Her use of innovative literary techniques helps to ensure that the voices of survivors are amplified and not forgotten. In a helpful introduction, Stepakoff discusses specific reasons that the genre of "found poetry" serves as a uniquely powerful means by which writers can bear witness to atrocity. In the tradition of Charles Reznikoff's 1975 collection of found poems based on the transcripts of the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, Stepakoff's excavation and shaping of survivor testimonies opens a new possibility for speaking about the unspeakable.