Season's Greetings
As many of you will remember from previous years, each year the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) produces a list of addresses of imprisoned writers and/or their families to whom PEN members may send seasonal greetings over the period November to February, when many religious and secular holidays fall.
Many writers who have received these cards have told us of how much it meant to them to be remembered by their colleagues in this way, and those of you who have participated in this initiative in previous years will know how touching it is to receive a response from a prisoner or their family.
Over 100 PEN members participated in this initiative last year, and around 15 cards were sent to each of the 60 cases on the 2008 list. Our aim this year is to double both the number of members involved and the number of cards sent to each of the prisoners.
Season's Greetings Guidelines:
If you are interested in being involved in the initiative, please email cat@englishpen.org to request the list for 2009. This list includes links to information on each of the cases as well as the addresses to which greetings should be sent. (NB. These addresses should be treated as confidential, and as such must not be posted on a website or otherwise made public as this may lead to misuse by others.)
You may wish to send cards to all those on the list or you might decide to focus on a particular region, country or case - it is entirely up to you. All we ask is that you let us know which of the cases you decide to write to so that we can keep a record of how many cards are sent to each of the prisoners.
As the prisoners represent a variety of religious faiths, it is strongly advised that you do not send cards with overtly religious symbolism. Instead, we recommend that you send general greetings or tourist cards from your town.
Should you wish to write to a particular country but are worried by language limitations, please visit the 'Translated Greetings' page of the website. There you will find a brief message translated into Spanish, French, Mandarin, Uzbek and Turkish which can be included alongside your own message. We also hope to have these available in Arabic, Persian, and Vietnamese over the coming weeks.
It is important to put your return address on the card (or put the office address of English PEN) so that, if the person is able to reply, they can do so. Please do let us know if you receive a response, and send us a copy for our records if possible.
Finally, we would be really grateful if those of you who are travelling to, or close to, any of the countries on the list would be willing to take letters and/or books for prisoners and their families with you, to send once you arrive.