Extracts from the current magazine

Welcome to 'The Writer Next Door'. This issue shares its theme with International PEN's literary theme for 2008 and its first festival of world literature festival, Free The Word!, held with great fanfare this spring in London.

The theme was designed to stimulate a wide range of responses, and the result is indeed diverse, here encompassing an aged French writer's suicide note and ode to his wife; a sly dig by an imprisoned Burmese poet at his country's dictatorial ruler; one writer's memories of her father and the fading Sicily of his origins; a misanthropic traveller's bizarre encounter in India; reminiscences of Paris, May 1968; and much more!

Meanwhile, guest writer Alberto Manguel offers a meditation on the work of a writer he has newly discovered.

Also in this issue, PEN International proudly inaugurates ‘Found In Translation'. Sponsored by Bloomberg, this new section will feature work in English, French or Spanish that has been translated for the first time.

To get a glimpse of what's in store, simply click on the link to one of the three pieces featured below. To download the full online issue, click on the magazine cover. If you'd like a copy of the full-length printed issue, please email us at: pisubscribers@internationalpen.org.uk.