PEN Canada envisions a world where
writers are free to write,
readers are free to read,
and freedom of expression prevails
Rashad Ramazanov and other Azeri dissidents are joining Mehman Huseynov in a hunger strike.
Released on the final day of PEN’s 84th annual congress, PEN’s report warns of “a rising tide of violence, impunity, extended pre-trial detentions, and surveillance” under the Modi government, of “punitive defamation laws [that] mute criticism”, nervous publishers who “have asked journalists to be less critical of authorities” and universities where a “climate of fear” has curbed student activism, rescinded invitations to controversial professors, andpurged textbooks that are deemed offensive.
More than 100 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000. This piece profiles Verónica Villalvazo, who investigates femicide in this climate of fear.
In December 2017, PEN Canada held a security training workshop for Indigenous women journalists in Guatemala, teaching them how to protect themselves and to cope with the stress of working in dangerous environments.
Christopher Hitchens memorably described Martin Amis’s style as “a synthesis of astonishing wit and moral assiduity.” Both were much in evidence as Amis spoke with the novelist and biographer Charlie Foran at PEN Canada’s 2018 gala dinner.
LPP student Maria Gabriela Martinez writes about the security workshops held by PEN and the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program in Guatemala City, December 7-9, 2017.
Solomon Hailemariam, former president of PEN Ethiopia and current PEN Canada Writer-in-Exile, reflects on his first Canadian winter.
Report on PEN Canada’s December 2017 security workshops for indigenous women journalists in Guatemala City.
PEN Canada Vice-President, Emily M. Keeler, tells the story of Advocate Kate Creasey’s work on the behalf of imprisoned Azeri writer Rashad Ramazanov.
Poet Mikko Harvey is the 2017 winner of the RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award for unpublished writers aged 17-30.
Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules