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Q&A with Fareh Malik — New Voices Award winner

Fareh Malik is a spoken word poet from Hamilton, Ontario and the winner of the 2022 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award. His new book Streams that Lead Somewhere is available from Mawenzi Press. In its citation the New Voices Award jury praised Malik’s “tenderness and throat-grabbing use of imagery” and his “wide range of voices and tones to convey a nuanced spectrum of emotions and a laser sharp critique of Canada’s blatant and covert systemic racism.”

Bob Rae and Salman Rushdie at the 1992 PEN Canada benefitJean-Marc Desrochers Photography
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Watch CODENAME SALLY

Codename Sally Watch CODENAME SALLY, a short documentary on how members of PEN Canada brought Salman Rushdie, in total secrecy and heavy security, out of deep hiding in the UK …

Salman Rushdie at the 2017 PEN Canada Gala
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An attack on one writer is an attack on us all

PEN Canada was shocked and horrified by the vicious attack on Salman Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State last Friday. Now, a few days later, we are heartened by the positive news as to his condition – on the mend, says his agent — despite wounds that are life-changing and the prospect of a long road to recovery.

Salman Rushdie 1992 benefit, Ric Young, Salman Rushdie, Louise Dennys, and Michael Ondaatje
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PEN condemns attack on Salman Rushdie

PEN International is deeply shocked and appalled to learn that former PEN America President and renowned writer, Salman Rushdie, was attacked today just before giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. We utterly condemn the attack and wish him a prompt and full recovery.
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Q&A with Amber Bracken, Canadian photojournalist and winner of the 2022 Ken Filkow Prize

Amber Bracken is a Canadian photojournalist who has reported extensively on the impacts of colonization, often affecting Indigenous peoples in North America. PEN Canada awarded her the 2022 Ken Filkow Prize for her courageous coverage of  the 2021 coastal pipeline protests on Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory in British Columbia. Bracken has also won the Contemporary Issues category of the 2017 World Press Photo awards and in 2022 won the overall World Press Photo of the Year.
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Myanmar: PEN Centres around the world condemn the execution of writer Kyaw Min Yu

PEN Centres around the world are appalled by Monday’s news that writer Kyaw Min Yu (also known as Ko Jimmy) is among four pro-democracy activists who have been executed by the military junta, following a show trial that denied their ability to establish their innocence according to international fair trial norms. According to sources, Kyaw Min Yu’s family have yet to be informed of the specific date that his execution took place.

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RWCHR files complaint to UN on behalf of Dawit Isaak and his colleagues

The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR), in partnership with an international coalition of leading NGOs, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), PEN International, Defend Defenders, and Mr. Isaak’s Swedish legal counsel, filed a complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention calling for accountability for the Eritrean government’s gross human rights violations against Dawit Isaak and his colleagues, the longest detained journalists in the world today, and their immediate and unconditional release.
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Fareh Malik wins 2022 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award  

June 24, 2022 — Fareh Malik, a poet from Hamilton, Ontario has won the 2022 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices award. The jury described his collection, Streams that Lead Somewhere as an intense “portrait of what it’s like to feel othered and alienated by daily doses of hate.” The citation noted the poems’ “tenderness and throat-grabbing use of imagery” and Malik’s “wide range of voices and tones to convey a nuanced spectrum of emotions and a laser sharp critique of Canada’s blatant and covert systemic racism”