PEN Canada envisions a world where
writers are free to write,
readers are free to read,
and freedom of expression prevails
Meet the Jury for the 2021 New Voices Award PEN Canada is currently accepting submissions for the 2021 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award. The award seeks to encourage new writing and to provide a space where unpublished writers (age 17 and over) can submit short stories, creative non-fiction, journalism, and poetry. Eligible writers are invited […]
Myanmar: Zarganar’s arrest highlights junta’s efforts to silence critics
PEN Canada’s Ken Filkow Prize was established in memory of Kenneth A. Filkow, Q.C., a distinguished Winnipeg lawyer and active member of PEN Canada’s Canadian Issues Committee. The award honours authors, journalists, public servants, scientists, professors, and concerned citizens whose work has advanced freedom of expression in Canada. Nominations for the 2021 prize can be […]
Deadline Extended! RBC/PEN Canada 2021 New Voices Award PEN Canada is now accepting English language submissions for the RBC/PEN Canada 2021 New Voices Award. The annual award aims to encourage new writing and to provide a space where unpublished writers can submit short stories, creative non-fiction, journalism, and poetry. A jury of distinguished PEN Canada […]
Named in memory of Kenneth A. Filkow, Q.C., a distinguished Winnipeg lawyer, former chair of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, and active member of PEN Canada’s Canadian Issues Committee, the prize celebrates champions of freedom of expression. The right to freedom of opinion and expression is protected under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enshrined as a fundamental freedom in section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This prize is funded by Cynthia Wine and Philip Slayton.
PEN Canada has successfully intervened before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in the Canadian Constitution Foundation’s (CCF) challenge to the constitutionality of section 91(1) of the Canada Elections Act.
The Liu Xiaobo Anniversary Campaign will act as a commemoration of Liu Xiaobo’s life, his contribution to Chinese literature, and his selfless work promoting basic freedoms in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), while also highlighting the case of writers Gui Minhai, Chimengül Awut, Kunchok Tsephel, Yang Hengjun and Qin Yongmin who are currently detained by the PRC government.
Largely without public debate – and absent any new safeguards – we’ve become even more dependent on a technological ecosystem that is notoriously insecure, poorly regulated, highly invasive and prone to serial abuse.
There is a widespread belief that social media companies do not care about these problems and have resisted every attempt by government to regulate them. But that is not always the case
PEN is delighted to learn of the temporary release of prominent Iranian writer, lawyer and human rights activist, Nasrin Sotoudeh, on November 7, 2020.
Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules