The PEN America Literary Awards shortlist has been announced! Here’s a totally unbiased look at it—especially the biography category
It’s that time of year again: time for book nerds to ululate up to the heavens in praiseful happiness, for—yea, verily—the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards finalists have been announced. [There’s… Read more »
Coalition of writers sends letter to colleagues imprisoned in Turkey
A coalition of 150 writers, including Nobel laureates, former prisoners of conscience, and and many more, has sent a letter of support to colleagues imprisoned in Turkey via PEN International. Turkey, as… Read more »
The case of Svetlana Alexievich’s Russian PEN membership
Five days after Nobel Prize-winning writer Svetlana Alexievich announced her resignation from the Russian PEN Center over its expulsion of journalist and activist Sergey Parkhomenko, the organization released a statement denying… Read more »
International publishers are “deeply concerned” over closure of Turkish publishing houses
Earlier this month, we reported on a media shutdown in Turkey following the country’s failed military coup, which, according to a report from PEN International, resulted in the forced closure of… Read more »
Journalists arrested and publishers shuttered in Turkey
Something is rotten in the state of Turkey. Two weeks ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared a three-month state of emergency in order to investigate criminal conduct during that… Read more »
PEN urges Chinese government to free dissident poets Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia
PEN International has called (once again) for the Chinese government to release poet and human rights advocate Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced in 2008 to eleven years in prison for “inciting subversion… Read more »
Chinese publisher of dissident literature sentenced to ten years for ‘smuggling’
Goddamnit, China. Earlier this month I wrote that I’d like to see more nuance in our discussions of Chinese publishing, something beyond the tired stories of censorship, juxtaposed with stories… Read more »
What’s happening to dissenting voices in Hong Kong? Like book publisher Yao Wentian, they’re getting arrested
Yao Wentian, the publisher of Morning Bell Press in Hong Kong, was arrested on October 27, and has remained in prison for the last three months in spite of numerous… Read more »
Appeal for arrested Iranian writers
Today is World Refugee Day, and thoughts turn to regimes that imprison their writers, forcing others into exile. Iran is one such regime, and PEN last week launched an appeal on… Read more »