The reading map: PEN Centres’ 2015 Highlights
PEN Centres from around the world share their top reads of 2015, and tell us what they will be campaigning on in 2016.
Archive
Articles
The UK gets its FIL
Translator and writer Jethro Soutar reports from the 2015 Guadalajara International Book Fair, the biggest annual literary event in the Spanish-speaking world.
Refugees and Writers: Conversations in the Calais ‘Jungle’
To mark International Human Rights Day, a special PEN Atlas dispatch from the refugee camps at Calais by writers Dr. Olumide Popoola and Annie Holmes.
The Prison Book Club comes full circle
Canadian journalist Ann Walmsley, author of The Prison Book Club, reports from the last stop on her UK book tour – an English PEN ‘Meet the Writer’ event at HMP Wandsworth.
From One Reader to Another
The transcript of Jessie Burton’s inspiring keynote speech, delivered as part of From One Reader to Another – a collaborative reading initiative from English PEN, Free Word and The Reading Agency
PEN Atlas Q&A: Amélie Nothomb
The prolific Belgian writer talks to PEN atlas about the Parisian literary scene, a recurring character called Amélie Nothomb and her latest book - Petronille, published in English translation by Europa Editions.
On the novel Laurus
Eugene Vodolazkin writes on using the language of the past to construct new meaning for the present, and the medieval and postmodern influences for his new novel Laurus.
Building Bridges: The Conrad Festival in Kraków
The Feminist Press's Lauren Hook sends a dispatch from Kraków's annual Conrad Festival, reflecting particularly on the inspiring women writers she met there.
#freeslahi: An appeal for justice
Larry Siems, director of the Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center, makes an impassioned plea for the case of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, imprisoned at Guantánamo.
An Affirming Flame; the voice of Kyiv
Two years after the Euromaidan movement began, translator Steve Komarnyckyj speaks to prominent Ukrainian writers about free speech and the influence of the Kremlin in Kyiv.
On Translating Orwell's Animal Farm
Zimbabwean lawyer Petina Gappah, founder of The Orwell Project, reflects on revolutions, betrayals, and the universality of Orwell’s masterpiece.
Crossing cultures
Former child refugee Gulwali Passarlay shares his experience of stepping into a new life in the UK and discusses the publication of his memoir, The Lightless Sky.
'Banned from entry to Bahrain'
Marc Owen Jones, co-editor of a new book exploring the personal stories behind the Arab Spring's 'forgotten front', shares his experiences of Bahrain as a child growing up and now.
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.
The Day of the Nation
In 2012, activist and blogger Raif Badawi was convicted for ‘insulting Islam through electronic channels’. He was sentenced to a fine of one million riyals (£175,000), ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes. To mark Saudi Arabia's national day (23 September), here is an extract from Badawi's forthcoming book.
PEN Atlas Q&A: Aleksandar Hemon
A PEN Atlas Q&A with Aleksandar Hemon, whose novel The Making of Zombie Wars is published by Picador Books this month.
Far from Pompeii
Susana Moreira Marques, author of Now and at the Hour of our Death, writes of obsolescence, loss and remembering in a rural town in northern Portugal.
For sale along with the book
On the occasion of the publication of her latest novel, Elena Ferrante discusses her creative choices and her desire to remain anonymous.