Join us during Refugee Week for juice, cookies and the launch of our exciting new pamphlet, The Make My Day!  Diary, a collection of diary entries, poems and short stories written by young people who recently arrived in the country.

English PEN has been working with the Tricycle Theatre, funded by John Lyon’s Charity, bringing writers together with young people from countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Somalia. The event will also feature highlights from our Brave New Voices programme, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Featuring John Hegley, Dzifa Benson, Warsan Shire and the young people of Copland Community School and NewVIc college.

 The event is FREE to attend but please email philip@englishpen.org to reserve your place.

Join Mohamed Mesrati and Malek Sghiri, contributors to a new book ‘Writing Revolution’ (I.B.Tauris, May 2013) as they discuss their approaches to capturing the Arab Spring in writing.

Writing Revolution is a collection of some of the best new writing born out of the Arab Spring. Bringing together writers from across the Arab world, it tells the deeply moving and personal accounts of these individuals who witnessed and wrote about the profound changes shaking their region. Translated mostly from the Arabic, it is a winner of English PEN’s 2013 Award for outstanding writing in translation.

Mohamed Mesrati was born in 1990 in Tripoli, Libya. He is a writer and activist currently working on his novel, Mama Pizza, whilst in exile in the UK.

Malek Sghiri is a 25-year old student, political activist, blogger, and leader of the General Union of Tunisian Students. He founded the movement Jil Jadid (New Generation) and participated in demonstrations in Tunis, Thala, and Tadamon. He was arrested and detained at the Ministry of Interior between 11 – 18 January 2011.

This event is free entry but to reserve your place please email nfrench@ibtauris.com

Part of Shubbak Festival – Shubbak, Window on Contemporary Arab Culture

English PEN will host workshops at the Around the World in 80 Books Readers’ Days across the UK, why not join us at the next readers’ day in Essex? Featuring authors Kate Mosse and Michelle Lovric, writing workshops, competitions, goody bag and so much more. Come along and enjoy a feast of exciting reading from across the globe!

Programme

9.30am – 10am Registration and goody bags.

10 – 10.30am Oxygen Books’ city-pick team introduce some of their favourite books set in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Venice and Istanbul.

10.30 – 11.15am Bestselling writer Kate Mosse, author of the Languedoc Trilogy featuring Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel talks about her hugely popular novels, their French setting and the French writers, past and present, who have inspired her. www.katemosse.co.uk

11.15 – 11.30am Coffee break

11.35am – 12.20pm Workshop Choice One

Passionate enthusiasts guide us through the best writing from some of our favourite countries. Or else sample a special writing workshop.

Choose from the following when you sign up at Registration – first come first served. Each 45 minutes

Turkish Delights: Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak are just the start when it comes to the untold riches of Turkish writing. Well-known translator Feyza Howell helps you discover its myriad delights.

French Letters: Whether its Victor Hugo or Marcel Proust, many of us know about the classics but are less aware of contemporary French writing. Hélène Fiamma, Head of Books at London’s Institut Français, takes us on a wonderful whistle-stop tour of this rich literary scene.

Going Dutch: For such a small country the Netherlands has produced a remarkable range of writers, many now available in English translation. Arnold Jansen op de Haar, writer and advisor to Holland Park Press, tells us about the prose and poetry we shouldn’t be missing.

German Cousins: Germany has some of the very best crime, thriller and literary writers. This session, run by Anne Marie Goodridge from London’s Goethe Institute, helps you discover many of these jewels, together with a look back at the classics.

Freedom to Read, Freedom to Write. A creative writing session. Capturing creative responses to world writing, Wendy Ann Greenhalgh works with English PEN to celebrate ways that writers courageously and imaginatively strive to liberate their ideas and writing. In this workshop Wendy will use words of imprisoned writers as a ‘jumping-off point’ for creative writing and discussion.

12.20 – 1.20 pm. Lunch. A café will be open for you to purchase refreshments

1.20 – 1.30 Competition results and prizes

1.30 – 1.50 pm The Joys of Foreign Fiction: Independent Publisher of the Year Meike Ziervogel of Peirene Press tells us about her innovative company and her choice of compelling novels.

1.50  -  2.35 pm Bestselling novelist and Venetian resident Michelle Lovric- author of Carnevale, The Floating Book, The Remedy, The Book of Human Skin, as well as novels for younger readers – sets her sumptuous and thrilling novels in historic Venice. Here she talks about her writing and the writers on Venice who have inspired her. www.michellelovric.com

2.35 – 2.50 pm Coffee break

2.55 -  3.40 pm Workshop Choice Two

3.45 – 4.25pm A Year of Reading the World. During 2012 writer Ann Morgan set herself the task of reading one book from every one of the world’s 196 countries. She tells us about the joys and surprising discoveries she has made.

4.25 – 4.30pm Round up

Please note: all the books discussed are available in English language editions. No prior knowledge of any of the books or writers is needed.

Praise for our Around the World in 80 Books Readers’ Day, Winchester, March 2013:

‘I enjoyed the sheer range of books and countries covered…’
‘Variety of talks, all interesting, thought-provoking and entertaining..’
‘The passion and enthusiasm of those running the workshops’

Rabai al-Madhoun discusses his novel The Lady from Tel Aviv, which was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2010. Both a meditation on the nature of fiction and an incisive exploration of the effects of Occupation on a people, The Lady from Tel Aviv focuses on the intersection in the lives of an Israeli actress and a Palestinian writer whose chance encounter on a plane exposes the chasm between them in the land they both call home.

Rabai al-Madhoun is one of the Arab world’s prominent literary figures and tonight appears in conversation with British-Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh, author of Out of It, in an evening organised by the Arab British Centre, with the support of English PEN and Telegram Books. After the discussion you’ll have the opportunity to continue the conversation over complementary drinks.

To reserve your place please visit the Arab British Centre website.

Part of Shubbak Festival – Shubbak, Window on Conteporary Arab Culture

English PEN Members’ Summer Party 2013 will take place at J&A Cafe in Clerkenwell. Come along and share a drink and some food with the PEN team!

With muscial entertainment from jazz/world music collective Territory

Members can buy tickets for themselves and up to two guests by contacting carole@englishpen.org or clicking the link below to pay online.

Now in its fourth year, the International Translation Day symposium is an annual event for the translation community. It is an opportunity for translators, students, publishers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers and reviewers to gather and debate significant issues and developments within the sector, to discuss challenges and to celebrate success. Following a sold out day last year, this year the day will take place at the British Library.

Tickets are now available to book here – make sure you keep the date free. Keep and eye on the website or sign up to the Free Word newsletter to keep up-to-date with news, ticket sales and the programme.