Life in War
Nayrouz Qarmout follows her short story for PEN Atlas with a gripping diary piece from the heart of the conflict in Gaza
PEN Transmissions
Articles
Umm Ahmed: Newsflash
A rare and incredibly moving piece of fiction from Gaza, from writer and activist Nayrouz Qarmout
Writing, recreating, surviving
Tomás González writes for PEN Atlas about the act of literary creation, the qualms over writing about family tragedy, and how one shocking night on a beach in Colombia changed his life
A Golden Age for the African Short Story
On 14 July 2014, Okwiri Oduor became the 15th winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, for her short story ‘My Father’s Head’, making her the third Kenyan winner of the Prize
Horror and words
Michel Laub, author of Diary of the Fall, writes for PEN Atlas on the importance of defining a vocabulary of atrocity
The shot at Sarajevo
Bosnian writer Alma Lazarevska ruminates on the events that triggered the First World War
The five stereotypes of Tibet
What's the story behind the romance and propaganda surrounding Tibet?
The erotic and revolutionary poetry of Afghanistan
Amid recent election controversies, Bashir Sakhwaraz writes about Afghan women's poetry
Playing Vietnamese
For PEN Atlas this week Mariusz Szczygieł writes about the strange case of a Vietnamese literary prodigy in the Czech Republic who proved that fact is stranger than fiction
Who wants to kill a million?
To inaugurate the publication of Syria Speaks, which will be touring UK bookshops, universities, refugee centres and schools, co-editor Malu Halasa writes for PEN Atlas about the uprising, the bravery and black humour of the activists, and how a satirical cartoon and finger puppets inspired the collection
PEN Atlas Q&A: Joël Dicker, author of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
Tasja Dorkofikis talks to Joël Dicker about his literary and geographic inspirations, his method of plotting, and his novel in translation that has been a huge bestseller around the world
Kiev’s Militant Spring
Alexei Nikitin writes for PEN Atlas about the tense atmosphere in Kiev, where the café-goers listening to jazz and the remaining protesters on the Maidan barricades await further news from the east of the country