About City of Asylum

Our Mission

City of Asylum builds a just community by protecting and celebrating freedom of creative expression.

We provide sanctuary to endangered writers and artists, so that they can continue to create and their voices are not silenced.

We offer a broad range of free literary, arts, and humanities programs in a community setting to build social equity through cultural exchange.

And by transforming dilapidated properties into homes for our programs, we anchor neighborhood economic development.

Our History

City of Asylum was founded in 2004 by Northside residents Diane Samuels and Henry Reese. Our first writer, Huang Xiang, arrived in Pittsburgh in 2004. Learn More…

City of Asylum Exiled Writer and Artist Residency Program

We offer short and long-term residencies to persecuted writers so that they can continue to write. City of Asylum’s Writer and Artist Residency Program promotes the transformation of cultural life in Pittsburgh while advancing the field of literature worldwide. Learn more…

Volodymyr Rafeyenko

Olena Boryshpolets

Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko

Rania Mamoun

Anouar Rahmani

Jorge Olivera Castillo

Tuhin Das

Mai Khôi

Aunel Arneth Kimbembe Makaya

Simten Coşar

Bewketu Seyoum

Osama Alomar

Israel Centeno

Yaghoub Yadali

Khet Mar

Horacio Castellanos-Moya

Huang Xiang