With the 2020 Prix Voltaire winner losing a key author under safety concerns, the International Publishers Association appeals to Hanoi for restraint.
PEN America: Chinese Essayist Xu Zhiyong Wins Barbey/Freedom To Write Award
On the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the writer Xu Zhiyong is named PEN America’s 2020 winner of the Barbey/Freedom To Write Award.
PEN America’s Inaugural Freedom To Write Index: 238 Imprisoned
The new PEN America Freedom To Write Index provides an unprecedented overview of international suppression and detention. China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey lead.
PEN America’s 2020 Literary Award Winners
More than US$330,000 in prize money is attached to the annual PEN America Literary Awards, each of which is selected by a separate jury.
On Iowa Caucuses Day: PEN America Opens ‘Free Speech 2020’
As voters in the state of Iowa officially open the American presidential primary season tonight, PEN America announces its free-speech advocacy effort.
PEN America Warns Proposed Missouri Bill Could Jail Librarians
A proposed Missouri state bill ‘relating to parental oversight of public library with penalty provisions’ alarms freedom-of-expression advocates.
Kazakhstan’s Rollan Seisenbayev on Ecological Disaster: ‘I Heard My Heartbeat’
‘The Aral Sea did not dry up by itself. It was killed,’ says Rollan Seisenbayev, whose ‘The Dead Wander in the Desert’ is longlisted by PEN America.
PEN America Announces 2020 Longlists in Its $330,000 Literary Awards
Both the translation and poetry-in-translation prizes are included in the eight longlists released by PEN America for its 2020 literary awards program.
Ethiopian Author Befeqadu Hailu Named as PEN Writer of Courage 2019
Lemn Sissay has named Ethiopia’s Befeqadu Hailu to English PEN’s Honor. And PEN America’s Jennifer Egan blasts the Nobel’s choice of Peter Handke.
Human Rights Proponents Hail Mauritania’s Release of Mkhaïtir
Just days before a peaceful transfer of power in Nouakchot, writer Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaïtir was released and removed from the country for safety.