What began as a friend's simple suggestion for an essay became a two-and-a-half-year project. The result? A 336-page retelling of the trials and tribulations of two Ghanaian asylum seekers, Seidu Mohammed and Raz...

Germany made headlines Sept. 8 when Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the country is expected to spend $6.6 billion to welcome 800,000 refugees by the end of 2015. Merkel has insisted that the country’s borders remain open in light of Europe’s refugee crisis. Germany, which could accept up to an additional 500,000 refugees in future years, has committed to absorbing more refugees than any other European Union nation.Sweden h...

Columbia’s Fiction Writing Department was granted new funding support for this semester’s Story Week Festival of Writers, an event that draws a diverse group of writers to the campus to help student writers find a voice through readings, conversation and author Q-and-As.Beginning this semester, the department will receive $9,000 annually until 2016 from the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foun...