How, Telling
Eley Williams wants to tell you a secret.
PEN Transmissions
Articles
We grew up fearful and confused
Margarita García Robayo remembers growing up in an environment where sex was ‘a poker game, trading in favours, a secret key that belonged to us girls’.
The teeth in the texts
Each text holds a secret, whether intentional or unintentional. Sarvat Hasin investigates and encounters ghost versions and inspirations that shape a text 'like teeth hidden in a close-mouthed smile'.
Editorial: writing the past
Against the ignorant sun
Towards complete self acceptance, via suburban Jakarta, Christian saints and a shopping centre’s car park: Norman Erikson Pasaribu writes his personal history.
The past is a dimension of the present: a conversation with Javier Cercas
In his novels and non-fiction work, Javier Cercas relentlessly dissects the Spanish past. Most recently, The Impostor (translated by Frank Wynne) was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.
If Gaza were a story
Doaa Mohaisen grew up in Gaza. When she moved to Qatar, she was confronted with 'the fakeness and fragility of the hero narrative'.
The past and the present side by side: a conversation with Peter Kimani
Kenyan writer Peter Kimani talks to us about how he tackled the past in his latest novel, representing otherness, and freedom of speech in Kenya.
On the move: a conversation with Olga Tokarczuk
Olga Tokarczuk is a prolific Polish writer. Her novel Flights, translated by Jennifer Croft, won the Man Booker International Prize 2018. We spoke to her about being a Central European writer, the current political situation in Poland, and the backlash against her latest book.
A revolution awaiting its name
Seven years on from the Arab Spring, Egyptian writer Basma Abdel Aziz wonders what has happened.
Going home
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan has edited an anthology 'for and about the people who have heard the cry ‘Go Home!’ too many times'.
Editorial: hope after crisis
We asked four writers what happens after a revolution, after a political crisis or transformation, once the cameras have moved on, when it’s just you and the aftermath of whatever happened.