PEN Canada envisions a world where
writers are free to write,
readers are free to read,
and freedom of expression prevails
Marian Botsford Fraser’s recollection of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for Chinese poet Liu Xiaobo.
In October 1993, PEN Canada’s Writer in Prison chair, Marian Botsford Fraser, attended and reported on the trial of Eli Langer, an artist whose works were seized on the basis of a newly amended definition of child pornography that was extended to include any visual representation of a person under the age of 18 engaged in “explicit sexual activity”.
China’s Peoples Daily Online recently declared that “the Beijing Olympic Games were widely regarded as the best ever.” China was both affirmed and emboldened by it triumphalist Games and subsequent economic ascension. It has no fear of disapproval from the international community.
Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules