Tag Archives: PEN

She Is Not Alone – A Joint Statement

She Is Not Alone
– A Joint Statement

The undersigned PEN centers and individuals are expressing our solidarity with Ms. Geling Yan, a prominent American-Chinese author residing in Berlin, for her struggle to restore her credit against Chinese state power. As shown in her open letter attached, Chinese authorities have suppressed her freedoms of expression and of the press in China, and been extending their long-arm censorship beyond through China’s expanding economic and political powers. We are calling the writers, journalists, publishers, distributors and media of conscience to support Ms. Yan’s One-Person-against-A-State struggle Continue reading

THE DEMOCRACY OF THE IMAGINATION MANIFESTO

PEN International was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere, emphasize the role of literature in developing understanding, stand for freedom of expression and act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, silenced, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views. Continue reading

Open letter to Google on reported plans to launch a censored search engine in China

Dear Mr Pichai,

Like many of Google’s own employees, we are extremely concerned by reports that Google is developing a new censored search engine app for the Chinese market. The project, codenamed “Dragonfly”, would represent an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights. The Chinese government extensively violates the rights to freedom of expression and privacy; by accommodating the Chinese authorities’ repression of dissent, Google would be actively participating in those violations for millions of internet users in China. Continue reading

PEN International interview series marks International Women’s Day 2017

8 March 2017

It is the extraordinary legacy of women writers and journalists that inspire us at PEN to continue fighting the many barriers women writers still face. Whether that is censorship in the form of physical or emotional violence, a society that stereotypes and marginalizes them, or a publishing industry that still sees women earning less, publishing less, and being reviewed less than their male peers. This is a struggle that affects us all because everyone needs the stories, voices, and craft women writers have always offered – despite a huge number of challenges – in such abundance. The stories, rhythms, and power of women writers have created new worlds, both real and fictional, in which readers can lose and find themselves, glean inspiration to live more visibly and inhabit women’s knowledge. Continue reading

2017 PEN America Literary Awards Celebrate Books that Transcend Borders

CONTACT
Arielle Anema, Literary Awards Manager: +1.646.779.4813, [email protected]
Sarah Edkins, Director of Communications: +1.646.779.4830, [email protected]

NEW YORK–PEN America today announced the winners of its 2017 Literary Awards, including playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, whose life and play inspired the Oscar-nominated film Moonlight; novelist, essayist, and critic Aleksandar Hemon for his passion-project oral history of Bosnian migrants and their stories of displacement; British novelist Helen Oyeyemi for her first short story collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours (Riverhead); and sociologist Matthew Desmond for Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, a groundbreaking exploration of the devastating effects of rising housing costs on urban communities. Continue reading

New PEN report examines obstacles to minority-language publishing

21 February 2017 – To mark International Mother Language Day, PEN International has launched a new report which examines the condition for minority language creative writing industries in Kenya, Haiti, Serbia and Nigeria. Continue reading

TLRC Meeting and Asia-Pacific Centres’ Meeting

The PEN International TLRC Meeting and Asia-Pacific Centres’ Meeting, Bengaluru, India (Wed 24th – Friday 28th April  2017)

 

PEN International are proud to organise the meeting in partnership with the literary organisation Sangam House and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). Continue reading

China: PEN renews its calls to release all writers, journalists and publishers

pen-digital-freedom-logo7 December 2016

RAN 24/16

 

 

Ahead of World Human Rights Day, PEN International reiterates its calls on the Chinese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all writers, journalists, bloggers and publishers held for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of opinion, expression and association. The number of detained and imprisoned writers in China is among the highest in the world. PEN also calls on the authorities to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights without further delay. Continue reading