World Poetry Day, marked each year on 21 March, is an opportunity to celebrate poetry, the power and creativity of language and to promote reading, writing, publishing, and teaching poetry throughout the world. PEN centres around the world use this day to highlight the great challenges poets face across the globe simply for their work.

Each year, PEN focuses its campaigning on behalf of poets who have paid a high price for their poetry and ask our members and supporters across the globe to take action on their behalf.

This World Poetry Day, PEN is focusing our campaigning on the following poets:

Aron Atabek in Kazakhstan – read more and take action here

Amanuel Asrat in Eritrea – read more and take action here

Dareen Tatour in Israel – read more and take action here

Liu Xia in China – read more and take action here