The Future Will Be in Our Image
Elhum Shakerifar on The Conference of the Birds and the Global Sumud Flotilla.
palestine
palestine – PEN Transmissions
A Matter of Conscience: Alice Oswald
Alice Oswald on what it means to write with and from conscience.
A Matter of Conscience: Ahdaf Soueif
Ahdaf Soueif on what it means to write with and from conscience.
Peace: Max Porter’s 2026 PEN Lecture
English PEN’s annual PEN Lecture delivered by Max Porter on 29 April 2026.
Respectable Writers and Useful Scenery
Kamila Shamsie's 2025 PEN Lecture.
Who Has the Right to Be Grieved?
Susannah Dickey on the true crime media engine, Palestine, grief and the PEN Heaney Prize.
Naomi Klein: An Encomium to Arundhati Roy and Alaa Abd el‑Fattah
Naomi Klein's PEN Pinter Prize 2024 encomium.
No Propaganda on Earth Can Hide the Wound that is Palestine: Arundhati Roy’s PEN Pinter Prize 2024 Speech
Arundhati Roy's PEN Pinter Prize 2024 speech.
When I Walk in Gaza, I Put My Hands in My Pockets
Ahmad Bassiouny writes from Gaza. Translated by Ibrahim Fawzy.
When You Are Stripped of All Else, You Will Need Poetry
lisa minerva luxx on poetry, memory, and breathing.
Dice
By Gazan writer Nayrouz Qarmout, translated by Sawad Hussain and Perween Richards.
My Eraser is a Memory
Nayrouz Qarmout writes from Gaza
For the Stories, or for the Visa Delays?
Nayrouz Qarmout writes about Edinburgh, Gaza, short stories, and packing her bag.
Exile, One Step Beyond
For our series on exile with the British Museum and Edmund de Waal, Selma Dabbagh writes on Palestine, desire, place and the future.
Over the sound of the drone
Atef Abu Saif discusses his latest publication - a collection of diary entries from the Gaza Strip - and reports on Gaza's thriving cultural scene.
No more trips to the beach, no more ice cream in Gaza
Ahmed Masoud writes about his son Zino and his trips to the beach in Gaza
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
Umm Ahmed: Newsflash
A rare and incredibly moving piece of fiction from Gaza, from writer and activist Nayrouz Qarmout
Notes from a Safe House in Area A
Selma Dabbagh returns to PEN Atlas, and to Ramallah, to stay at the Guest House of the Qattan Foundation. In this dispatch, she writes about the physical and bureaucratic walls that divide the territory, records the sounds of the Old City, and explores the impact of the Oslo Peace Accords on Palestinian literature
Selma Dabbagh reports from the Palestine Festival of Literature: Part 3
In her third PEN Atlas despatch, British Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh reflects on Palfest, dealing with criticism, and what freedom feels like
Selma Dabbagh reports from the Palestine Festival of Literature: Part 2
In this second PEN Atlas despatch from British Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh, we are taken deeper into Gaza; into the streets, into darkness.
Selma Dabbagh reports from the Palestine Festival of Literature: Part 1
This week the PEN Atlas hears from British Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh. In the first despatch, Selma describes her journey into Palestine; the sights, sounds and people she encounters en route.
