{"id":1183,"date":"2014-06-04T04:40:37","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T04:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2014-06-04T04:40:37","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T04:40:37","slug":"remember-writers-at-risk-this-world-book-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/remember-writers-at-risk-this-world-book-night","title":{"rendered":"Remember Writers at Risk this World Book Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted April 15th, 2014 by Cat Lucas & filed under Campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nOn 23 April, English PEN will be joining thousands of others in giving away books as part of this year\u2019s World Book Night celebrations. Our Writers at Risk Programme Manager Cat Lucas explains why.<\/p>\n

Next week, English PEN will join thousands of other World Book Night givers to distribute books to those that need them most. We have once again pledged to send our books to writers at risk \u2013 one of the longest running and most tangible ways PEN shows our support to brave colleagues around the world.<\/p>\n

The book I\u2019ll be sending is Roald Dahl\u2019s Vengeance is Mine Inc., a special collection of some of his most famous short stories. I\u2019m honoured to be able to share the work of one of my all time favourite writers with colleagues around the world, and hope that Dahl\u2019s humour \u2013 however dark \u2013 will provide them with an opportunity to escape their surroundings, even if only for a few hours.<\/p>\n

This is also why I chose another of Dahl\u2019s books, Matilda \u2013 a witty and heart-warming testament to the power of reading \u2013 as the book I would send to a prisoner as part of the ongoing campaign against restrictions on UK prisoners receiving books. English PEN is working closely with The Howard League for Penal Reform on the Books for Prisoners campaign against the restrictions introduced by the Ministry of Justice in November 2013 as part of a crackdown on prisoners\u2019 \u2018perks and privileges\u2019.<\/p>\n

In previous years, World Book Night titles have reached writers from Turkey to Vietnam, and we hope to reach even more writers in more countries this year. But I find it both shocking and sad that, were I to be sending these books to prisoners here in the UK instead, they would not get through as a result of the MoJ\u2019s current policy.<\/p>\n

TAKE ACTION<\/p>\n

Support the Books for Prisoners campaign<\/p>\n

Show your support for the #BooksforPrisoners campaign by letting us know which book you\u2019d send to a prisoner in the comments box below or via social media with #booksforprisoners
\nYou can also show your support by signing and sharing this petition
\nSend books<\/p>\n

If you are a World Book Night giver and are interested in sending a copy of your WBN title to one our cases of concern, please do get in touch. And even if you\u2019re not signed up to be a WBN giver, there\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t get involved in this scheme – although you\u2019ll have to source any books you\u2019d like to send yourselves.<\/p>\n

HOW TO GET INVOLVED<\/p>\n

We are asking WBN givers who are interested in sending books to PEN\u2019s cases of concern to email the following details to cat@englishpen.org:<\/p>\n

Title of your WBN book;
\nNumber of copies you would like to send.
\nGUIDELINES FOR SENDING BOOKS<\/p>\n

Participants are expected to cover the postage costs of sending the books overseas;
\nParticipants are requested not to publish or circulate the addresses of our cases of concern;
\nParticipants are recommended to send a brief note with your book, explaining the purpose of World Book Night and your connection with English PEN;
\nParticipants are asked to include a return address so that the recipient can respond if they are able to do so. If you would be more comfortable using the English PEN office address, please feel free to do so. (English PEN, Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA)<\/p>\n

From http:\/\/www.englishpen.org\/remember-writers-at-risk-this-world-book-night\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted April 15th, 2014 by Cat Lucas &am … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[302,301],"views":812,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1185,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions\/1185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}