China and Sweden continue to spar over missing bookseller
China and Sweden have renewed a war of words over the abduction and detention of Gui Minhai, a dissident bookseller and publisher. The latest rankle occurred last week when Swedish… Read more »
PEN World Voices participant Yassmin Abdel-Magied has been deported
The PEN World Voices Festival, an annual, weeklong celebration of international literature, kicked off last night. But among the 165 voices invited to participate, one writer was notably absent. According to John Maher… Read more »
Drama at the International Literary Festival: Macau Edition
Macau, the Jersey City of China. This former Portuguese colony, a mere ferry ride from the formerly British-administered Hong Kong, has not had the same global clout as its likewise colonial neighbor.… Read more »
Concern for the welfare of Chinese poet Liu Xia is mounting
A couple of years ago, we wrote about PEN International’s call for the Chinese government to release dissident writers Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia. Liu Xiaobo was convicted of “inciting subversion… Read more »
Kidnapped publisher Gui Minhai will receive the Jeri Laber Award
For more than a year, we’ve been following the case of the Causeway Bay Booksellers, five men who went missing in 2015, and were, months later, revealed to be in… 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 »
Despite uncertainty, supporters rejoice at Ahmed Naji’s temporary release from prison
The fate of Ahmed Naji, the Egyptian writer jailed since last February for sexually explicit material in his novel, has taken a surprising and tentatively positive turn. As we last… Read more »
Cameroonian writer and activist Enoh Meyomesse released from prison
While debates continue to rage around PEN’s selection of Charlie Hebdo as the recipient of their Freedom of Expression Courage award (as of this writing, 35 members have signed a… Read more »
Moving the needle in the world of translation: BEA, LBF, and “The Translator Writes Back”
This has been a fine, fine couple of weeks for translation. First, there was BookExpo America in New York last week, which dedicated all of Wednesday to translation as part… Read more »
Should The Globe Theatre take Hamlet to North Korea?
Earlier this week, Amnesty International criticized The Globe Theatre for planning to take its production of Hamlet to North Korea. Amnesty called for The Globe to read up on the… Read more »