We were delighted that so many of the PEN /Arvon course participants were able to join PEN members for an evening dedicated to the theme of writing in exile, part of the Talking Tuesdays series of monthly small scale events.

Poet, translator and critic Lawrence Sail, former Chair of the Arvon foundation and one of the tutors of the first PEN/Arvon Creative Writing Course for exiled/refugee writers, gave the audience a brief description of the format and highlights of the week, including the guest readings by novelist Patrick Neate and poet Hubert Moore, who was also in the audience. The discussion widened out to embrace the problems and freedoms of writing in English as a second (or third or fourth) language, with many of the members present being first or second generation exiles. PEN member Natascha Scott Stokes emailed us some thoughts arising from the evening, which you can read at Comments and discussions; and course participant Moises C. Florian has written the following article on some of the issues which he faces as a writer living in the UK.

Many thanks to Lawrence for leading such a lively discussion. You can read more about the course and participants at PEN/Arvon Creative Writing Course 2003.

Originally posted with the url: www.englishpen.org/events/reportsonrecentevents/lawrencesailandexiletalkingtue/