A charity auction for English PEN of 50 contemporary first editions, annotated by their authors
In partnership with Sotheby’s, English PEN is delighted to share plans for a unique auction on the evening of 21 May at Sotheby’s in London. All proceeds raised on the night will go to benefit English PEN’s core programmes to defend the freedom to write and the freedom to read.
For more information go to: www.englishpen.org/fest or follow on Twitter #PENauction
English PEN will be at Hay Festival of Literature at Hay-on-Wye this year with a series of events featuring writers who have benefited from our Writers in Translation programme in conversation with our Director Jo Glanville.
For tickets, visit the Hay Festival website
From Cairo to Damascus, Tunisia to Bahrain, Writing Revolution brings together some of the best new writing born out of the profound changes shaking the region.
We will be joined by the editors and two of the contributors to talk about their work and how it has been shaped and influenced by the historic events unfolding around them. They will be reflecting on what they have witnessed and documented, and the political and poetic engagement with questions of identity and activism.
Bringing together authors, journalists, activists, students, writers and bloggers this collection of writing offers a moving testimony to the hopefulness and the heartbreak that has been witnessed across the Arab world.
Chaired by Lyse Doucet, BBC presenter and chief international correspondent.
The editors:
Matthew Cassel is a journalist and photographer based in the Middle East since 2004. Formerly assistant editor of The Electronic Intifada online journal, he is a journalist with Al Jazeera English and a contributor to numerous other publications.
Layla Al-Zubaidi is director of the Southern Africa Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Cape Town. She headed the Foundation’s Middle East Office in Beirut for six years, served as Program Manager at its office in Ramallah and worked for several media and development institutions.
The contributors:
Ali Aldairy is a Bahraini researcher, linguist and cultural critic, interested in philosophy and religion. A long standing activist, he was involved in the Bahraini uprising in 2011 and was forced to leave the country. In exile he founded the online Arabic newspaper Mira’at al-Bahrain (The Bahrain Mirror).
Mohamed Mesrati is a Libyan writer and journalist residing in the UK. He started to publish his short stories online in 2007. He works as a journalist for El Kef newspaper, which has featured his investigative reports on social issues in Libya. An extract from his novel-in-progress Mama Pizza appeared in Banipal No. 40.
Visit the Frontline Club website for more information and to book tickets.
To celebrate the launch of Writing Revolution, join some of the editors and contributors as they discuss the project, the Arab Revolutions and their aftermath, and hear readings from the book.
Writing Revolution (I.B.Tauris) is a collection of some of the best new writing born out of the Arab Spring. Bringing together authors, journalists, activists, students, writers and bloggers, it tells the deeply moving and personal stories of these individuals who witnessed and wrote about the revolutions in their countries across the Arab region. From Cairo to Damascus and from Tunisia to Bahrain, Layla Al-Zubaidi and Matthew Cassel have brought together some of the most exciting new writing born out of revolution in the Arab world. This is a remarkable collection of testimony, entirely composed by participants in, and witnesses to, the profound changes shaking their region.
Panelists to include:
Matthew Cassel (Editor) A journalist and photographer covering the Middle East for Al Jazeera English. Cassel first learned about the region through his human rights and media work in Palestinian refugee camps. Over the past decade he has worked in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain and elsewhere.
Layla Al-Zubaidi (Editor) Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in South Africa, and was previously based in Beirut and Ramallah. She has published on cultural resistance and freedom of expression, and is co-editor of Democratic Transition in the Middle East: Unmaking Power (Routledge, 2012).
Ali Aldairy (Contributor, Bahrain) is a Bahraini researcher, linguist and cultural critic, interested in philosophy and religion. He is the author of several books and maintains his own website. A long standing activist he has been struggling since the Bahraini uprising in 2011 and was forced to leave the country. In exile he founded the online Arabic newspaper Mira’at al-Bahrain (The Bahrain Mirror).
Mohamed Mesrati (Contributor, Libya) is a Libyan writer and journalist residing in the UK. He started to publish his short stories online in 2007. He works as a journalist for El Kef newspaper, which has featured his investigative reports on social issues in Libya, including reports on women’s freedoms and on alcohol (in the latter he interviewed smugglers and local drinks-makers). He has also worked on reports investigating the status of Libyans living abroad. An extract from his novel-in-progress Mama Pizza has appeared in Banipal No.40.
Translated mostly from the Arabic, it has been awarded a 2013 Prize from English PEN for Outstanding Writing in Translation.
The discussion will be followed by a Q&A and a food and drinks reception.
To book please email rsvp@mosarooms.org
Don’t forget to check our screenings page for forthcoming films at The Mosaic Rooms.
The Dash Café with English PEN and the PEN Atlas are delighted to welcome Ukrainian author Oksana Zabuzhko to London, for this event to discuss her latest novel The Museum of Abandoned Secrets (English translation by Nina Shevchuk-Murray, published by AmazonCrossing).
Spanning sixty tumultuous years of Ukrainian history, this multigenerational saga weaves a dramatic and intricate web of love, sex, friendship, and death. At its centre: three women linked by the abandoned secrets of the past—secrets that refuse to remain hidden. From the dim days of World War II to the eve of Orange Revolution, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets is an “epic of enlightening force” that explores the enduring power of the dead over the living.
Oksana will also participate in a panel discussion with other leading cultural thinkers: exploring the historical and politicial context of modern Ukrainian literature, and the role of fiction writers in determining the country’s contemporary identity.
Oksana Zabuzhko is Ukraine’s leading contemporary author. She has worked as a Research Associate for the Institute of Philosophy of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, lectured in the US on Ukrainian culture (at Penn State University, 1992, Harvard University, and University of Pittsburgh, 1994), and worked as a columnist for some of the Ukraine’s major journals. Her 1996 novel Field Work in Ukrainian Sex was described as “the most influential Ukrainian book for the 15 years of independence”.
This Café will also feature music from Ukrainian performer and composer Olesya Zdorovetska, whose deep love of musical expression transcends genre and style. Recent solo projects include explorations of traditional music from her native Ukraine, investigations of Spanish poetry from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century, and ‘Texts for Nothing’, based on the work of Samuel Beckett. Collaboratively, she sings with celebrated Salsa band ‘Dislocados’ and electro-acoustic chamber ensemble, Sefiroth Ensemble.
Entrance is FREE
More information here
The Nordicana Show is a 2-day celebration of Scandinavian crime & thriller fiction and film, in association with Arrow Films’ Nordic Noir label the leading UK distributor of Nordic Noir on DVD and Blu-ray, and the global literary network English Pen and Free Word Centre.
Nordicana will play host to the stars of the hugely popular BBC Four TV series’ and best-selling authors with panel discussions, signings, exclusive screenings, talks, retail stands, books, DVD and Blu-ray, food and drink and much more. The venue for this unique event will be the landmark ‘Farmiloe Building’ in Clerkenwell.
BORGEN SCREENING followed by ‘Dramatising Politics’ panel discussion
Sunday 16 June, 12 midday *
An exclusive screening of the opening episode of Series 3 (60 mins) followed by on-stage panel discussion with Adam Price (creator and main writer of Borgen), Jeppe Gjervig Gram (writer, Borgen) Ingolf Gabold (former head of tv-drama, DR, and the man who made Danish TV drama a success), Jesper W. Nielsen (director, Borgen), Lone Theils (London correspondent of Politiken), Paula Milne (writer The Politician’s Husband, Channel 4), Kath Mattock (script editor, producer of BAFTA-winning ‘Murder’ with Birger Larsen, BBC 2).
£5 tickets, all proceeds go to PEN
Book your ticket here
(This event is part of the Nordicana convention for which you need to book day/weekend tickets here)
* times are subject to change
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 and poems 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.
