On Wednesday 14 February 2024, independent bookshops across the UK will hold events to raise money for the PEN Emergency Fund to provide support ring-fenced for writers at risk who are in and from Palestine. All proceeds will be directed via English PEN to the PEN Emergency Fund.
For every £1000 we raise, the PEN Emergency Fund will support one emergency grant to a Palestinian writer at risk.
All donations are welcome. Share this page using the hashtag #Valentines4Palestine. Art by Loose Associations.
Check the list below to find your nearest bookstore and their event details: where and when, how to book, and what will be happening on the night. Each bookstore will have its own unique set-up, including door prizes donated by UK publishers supporting #Valentines4Palestine.
Can’t make it to an event? We’ll have an online draw for all donors!
#Valentines4Palestine Bookstores
Event details will be added here as they go live!
Bookbag, Exeter: 6.30-8.30pm, £5 (suggested donation), find out more!
BOOKS, Peckham, London: draw & donate, more on Insta @bookspeckham
Brick Lane Bookshop, East London, draw, £6-25, buy tickets
Burley Fisher Books, Hackney, London, 6.30pm, £6, book now!
Chapter34, Shoreham-by-Sea
The Common Press, Tower Hamlets, London, 6.30-9pm, RSVP now!
The Hastings Bookshop, Hastings: ask in-store to join the draw!
La Biblioteka, Sheffield
Liznojan, Tiverton: 7.30-9.30pm, free to register
The Margate Bookshop, Margate
Maqam Books, London
Mount Florida Books, Glasgow
Newham Bookshop, East London
Pages of Hackney, London: 7pm, £6 (draw only)/£12, book now!
Paned o Gê, Cardiff: ask in-store @Queer Emporium
The Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh
Red Hound Books, Walthamstow, London, are donating all profits in-store & online for 14 Feb, go visit!
Round Table Books, South London: event @ BRXTN Village Studios, 7pm, book now! And a draw, open til 21/02/24, tickets!
Shelf Life Books and Zines, Cardiff: 6-8pm @Corp Market (in the nook), £5 suggested donation (more info on Twitter)
#Valentines4Palestine Publishers
❤️ Win books from… the87press, Atlantic Books, Broken Sleep Books, CHEERIO Publishing, Cipher Press, David Higham Associates, Fitzcarraldo Editions, Granta Books, Granta Magazine, The Indigo Press, Ignota Books, Jacaranda Books, Lolli Editions, Makina Books, Out-Spoken Press, Peirene Press, Peninsula Press, Pluto Press, Profile, Prototype, Scratch Books, Serpent’s Tail, Silver Press, Strange Region, Tilted Axis Press & Verso Books ❤️
About the PEN Emergency Fund
Based in the Netherlands, the now globally operating PEN Emergency Fund was founded by the writer A. den Doolaaard in 1971. It supports seriously persecuted writers and journalists, sometimes living in exile, with a once-only allowance that helps them (and in special cases, their families) to make ends meet when, for instance, they need to flee the country immediately or require urgent medical attention following abuse. Every year dozens of writers throughout the world are provided with aid.
About English PEN
English PEN is one of the world’s oldest human rights organisations, championing the freedom to write and read. We are the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers’ association with 130 centres in more than 90 countries. With the support of our members – a community of readers, writers, and activists – we protect freedom of expression whenever it is under attack, support writers facing persecution around the world, and celebrate contemporary international writing with literary prizes, grants, events, and our online magazine PEN Transmissions.
‘You must choose between feeding an animal, protecting two women, and bringing peace to two cities and two natures. Look at the total sum of the faces, every choice equals seven steps, either forwards or backwards. In the end, it’s either the Nile or the canal. Over there is life and back there is a Return.’
Nayrouz Qarmout, translated by Sawad Hussein and Perween Richards, ‘Dice,’ PEN Transmissions, 29 November 2023.