PEN Canada envisions a world where
writers are free to write,
readers are free to read,
and freedom of expression prevails
One month after police repression of peaceful protests in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh authorities must urgently take action to uphold the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, PEN international said today. Presidential elections held on June 9, 2019, saw thousands hundreds of protesters – including scores of journalists covering the events – targeted for […]
PEN Canada Writer-In-Residence George Brown College, Department of English and Communication, Toronto, Ontario Term: August 26, 2018 – December 13, 2018 PEN Canada invites applications from creative writers for the position of PEN Canada Writer-in-Residence at George Brown College from August 26, 2018 – December 13, 2018. The residency is designed to encourage exchanges between […]
Call for Applications from PEN Canada Writers-in-Exile Humber School for Writers Creative Writing by Correspondence Program (Creative Writing-Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry) The Humber School for Writers is seeking applications from PEN Canada’s Writers-in-Exile for its 30-week graduate certificate program commencing in September 2019. A full scholarship is available to writers who: are working on a book-length project – creative […]
Noor Naga has won the 2019 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award for young, unpublished writers. The award is funded by the RBC Emerging Artists Project and includes a $3,000 cash prize and mentorship from a Canadian author. Naga is the fourth writer to receive the prize since RBC and PEN partnered to create the […]
PEN Canada wishes to affirm the critical importance of the editorial independence of newspaper cartoonists. This follows the firing of editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder, which he says is due to a dispute with his employer, the Brunswick News company. De Adder claims that his freelance contract was terminated shortly after he released a widely […]
June 24 2019 – PEN centres in fourteen countries today joined PEN International and Norwegian PEN in calling for the Turkish authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Osman Kavala and Yiğit Aksakoğlu and drop all charges against them and their 14 co-defendants including prominent figures in the Taksim resistance such as Mücella Yapıcı, Tayfun Kahraman […]
4 June 2019 – Six years after being forcibly transferred to Manus Island, award-winning writer, film-maker and journalist Behrouz Boochani remains stranded on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. With his pen and camera Behrouz Boochani has shone a light on the horror, cruelty and injustice of Australian state policy towards refugees and asylum seekers. Writers, journalists and […]
In December 2017, PEN Canada held security training workshops in Guatemala City for a group of journalists who are particularly vulnerable to targeted aggression. Sixteen Indigenous female community radio journalists were taught how to minimize the risks of physical and sexual violence, extrajudicial detention, intimidation, and abduction; how to strengthen solidarity with media and human […]
PEN Canada’s Ken Filkow prize recognizes an individual or group that has advanced freedom of expression in Canada.
May 30, 2019 – The PEN International Case List published today documents increasing threats to writers and journalists around the world in the course of their work. The most reported type of attack in the Case List is lengthy prison terms. A total of 68 writers were imprisoned specifically for the practice of their profession […]
Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules