PEN Canada envisions a world where
writers are free to write,
readers are free to read,
and freedom of expression prevails
To commemorate Human Rights Day, PEN International and PEN Centres are launching an essay series and holding events on human rights issues across the globe. Eritrea: Forget “rights” and speak of duties and responsibilities Abraham T. Zere* The concept of “rights” doesn’t meaningfully exist in the state vocabulary of today’s Eritrea. The idea has been […]
Author and activist Samar Yazbek delivered the keynote speech at the 2020 Writers Unlimited festival at The Hague. Why am I going to talk about Maria Al Abdeh? Shortly you will understand the meaning of innovation, resistance and fighting evil. Maria is one of the millions of unknown Syrians who is not a party leader, […]
January 16, 2020: The Oxfam Novib/PEN International Award for Freedom of Expression 2020 has been awarded to prominent Ugandan academic, writer and feminist activist Dr. Stella Nyanzi. A medical anthropologist by training, Dr. Nyanzi has published widely in the academia on topics at the intersections of culture, health, law, gender and sexualities. She is an […]
Award-winning writer and poet, Shakthika Sathkumara, faces legal proceedings that could see him sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, should the Attorney General decide to press charges. On April 1, 2019, Sathkumara was detained pending a police investigation into allegations that his short story ‘Ardha’ (‘Half’) incited religious hatred. Sathkumara spent over 120 […]
In the fall of 2019, PEN Canada collaborated with Ryerson’s Community Engaged Learning & Teaching (CELT) initiative and Literatures of Modernity graduate program in the Faculty of Arts to bring members of our Writers-in-Exile network into the classroom.
We, the undersigned organisations, welcome today’s judgment on meaning in the case of Arron Banks vs Carole Cadwalladr. The judgment clarified the context of the comments that form the basis of this lawsuit, and noted that aspects of the claimant’s argument were “far-fetched and divorced from the specific context in which those words were used”. […]
In the fall of 2019, PEN Canada collaborated with Ryerson’s Community Engaged Learning & Teaching (CELT) initiative and Literatures of Modernity graduate program in the Faculty of Arts to bring members of our Writers-in-Exile network into the classroom.
In the fall of 2019, PEN Canada collaborated with Ryerson’s Community Engaged Learning & Teaching (CELT) initiative and Literatures of Modernity graduate program in the Faculty of Arts to bring members of our Writers-in-Exile network into the classroom.
To commemorate Human Rights Day, PEN International and PEN Centres are launching an essay series and holding events on human rights issues across the globe. Human Rights and Freedom of Expression in Malaysia Bernice Chauly, PEN Malaysia On May 9, 2018, millions of Malaysians voted in their 14th General Election. The country had been mired in […]
To commemorate Human Rights Day, PEN International and PEN Centres are launching an essay series and holding events on human rights issues across the globe. Of threshing fields, funerals and Eritrea on International Human Rights Day Daniel Mekonnen Looking at the very title of this contribution, a reader may wonder what ‘threshing fields’ and ‘funerals’ […]
Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules