Literary Events

Literature is at the heart of International PEN and we have a long tradition of staging events celebrating the wealth and diversity of world literature. In 2007, we began an international programme of events focusing on the engagement between reading and writing, readers and writers. From 2008, this programme expanded with International PEN's first festival of world literature Free the Word! and events in Africa and Latin America. All events are linked by an annual theme. The 2008 theme is ‘The Writer Next Door'. Each event distills, in one and many ways, the aims of International PEN and links all areas of our activity. They promote the issue of translation and how this can be used to effect positive change, explore issues of freedom of expression and translation, employ eminent writers to promote emerging voices, and link to International Programmes by not only bringing writers to literary events, but also working with them at the grass roots, with the aim of changing the state of reading, writing and publishing in the long term.

 

Many PEN Centres stage regular literary events that celebrate writers and writing from across the globe. If you are a PEN Centre or a literary organisation and would like to list your events, please contact Emily Bromfield, International PEN Communications Director.