内容摘要："There was one time in the night when I was feeling really down. I messaged the app and said 'I don't know if I want to be here anymore.' It came back saying 'Nick, you are valued. People love you'.

"There was one time in the night when I was feeling really down. I messaged the app and said 'I don't know if I want to be here anymore.' It came back saying 'Nick, you are valued. People love you'.

This was the catalyst that turned Hanan's writing from personal to public, writing a spoken word piece that she posted online.Since then, poetry - which she did only for herself or as a gift for loved ones' birthdays and weddings - has become something she has shared publicly to connect with others.

Hanan's first time at Hay Festival in the Powys town of Hay-on-Wye was seven years ago as a selected writer joining the Writers at Work programme, which aims to support emerging Welsh talent.She described the 10 days of workshops and events as an "eye-opener", helping to demystify the process of getting published and filling her with confidence as a writer too."If it had just been a one-off, I would say that was a tokenistic opportunity. But it hasn't been. I've been asked back time and time again... as a performer onstage," she said.

Some of Hanan's highlights of the festival this year included seeing Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist Mona Chalabi in conversation, as well as Kehinde Andrews, the UK's first professor of black studies.Throughout her visit this year, the poet said she noticed "way more hijabis".

"In a very sort of shallow aesthetic way, for me it's a natural thing to walk into a space and look around to see what the demographic is," she said.

"It's not very often that I look around and see hijabis in literary spaces, put it that way, and it's been lovely."This uncompromising attitude has its detractors, with many members and supporters of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) viewing Lee as aggressive and abrasive in his approach.

Lee's political career has also been marred by a series of scandals – including a drink driving incident in 2004, disputes with relatives in the late 2010s and allegations of an extramarital affair that emerged in 2018.While in other parts of the world voters have shown forgiveness and even support for controversial politicians, in South Korea – a country that is still relatively conservative in what it expects of public figures – such scandals have not typically played well.

In recent years, Lee's political ambitions have been saddled with even more pressing controversies - including the ongoing legal cases that continue to hang over him, threatening to hamstring if not scuttle his chances at election.One of these concerns a string of high-profile charges, including corruption, bribery and breach of trust, associated with a land development project in 2023.