PEN Transmissions

May 27, 2020May 27, 2020

Poetry’s Democracy: An Interview with Anthony Anaxagorou

Anthony Anaxagorou – poet, writer, publisher and educator – discusses spoken word after COVID-19, Cyprus, and poetry in the age of social media.

May 21, 2020May 21, 2020

This Library Is Not an Artwork: An Interview with Edmund de Waal

To open our series with the British Museum and Edmund de Waal, Edmund speaks to us about his library of exile

May 19, 2020May 19, 2020

This Is Not an Arthur Koestler Novel – This Is Turkey

Can Bahadır Yüce writes on Turkey’s response to coronavirus, and calls for the release of at-risk political prisoners

May 12, 2020May 12, 2020

That Is Where My Navel String Buried: An Interview with Ingrid Persaud

Ingrid Persaud discusses love, Trinidad, and home.

May 5, 2020

Art Is a Tool for Thinking: An Interview with Olivia Laing

Olivia Laing discusses the power of art in an emergency, the role of bad art, and our current weather.

May 1, 2020

A Hideous Kind of Tetris: Eley Williams in Conversation with Peggy Hughes

As part of our Digital Literary Salon, Eley Williams speaks to Peggy Hughes about dictionaries, constructing characters, and playing literary Tetris.

April 30, 2020

Interrogating Bodies: Irenosen Okojie in Conversation with Aki Schilz

As part of our Digital Literary Salon, Irenosen Okojie speaks to Aki Schilz about bodies, musicality, and placing black women at the centre.

April 29, 2020

The Darker Emotions of Being a Woman: Hazel Barkworth in Conversation with Hannah Trevarthen

As part of our Digital Literary Salon, Hazel Barkworth speaks to Hannah Trevarthen about summertime, the writing process, and ‘unlikeable’ women characters.

April 28, 2020April 28, 2020

Holding Up a Funhouse Mirror: Lavie Tidhar in Conversation with Robert Sharp

As part of our Digital Literary Salon, Lavie Tidhar speaks to Robert Sharp about speculative fiction, cultural appropriation, and what we can – and should – write.

April 27, 2020April 28, 2020

Being Seen: Dean Atta in Conversation with Keith Jarrett

As part of our Digital Literary Salon, Dean Atta speaks to Keith Jarrett about queer black British experience, schools, and writing for teens.

April 27, 2020

Editorial: A Digital Salon

Our editorial on the Digital English PEN Literary Salon – interviews with writers who were due to appear at the 2020 London Book Fair.

May 17, 2018January 22, 2020

On the move: a conversation with Olga Tokarczuk

The concept of a ‘nation’ doesn’t have the power to describe the contemporary identity of people living in the world. We should look for other ideas to describe us as a collective, as a group, as a society.

April 21, 2020May 13, 2020

The Librarian Would Give You a Lock-down Extension: An Interview with Chen Qiufan

Chen Quifan – also known as Stanley Chan – discusses Shanghai, speculative fiction, AI, and threats to humanity.

April 14, 2020May 13, 2020

Zoonotic

South African writer Henrietta Rose-Innes writes on lockdown in Cape Town, and spider bites.

April 7, 2020May 13, 2020

Plague Diary: A Week

Three days from a week of Portuguese writer Gonçalo M. Tavares’s coronavirus diary.

March 31, 2020May 13, 2020

Standing with Hong Kong: An Interview with Joshua Wong and Jason Y. Ng

Joshua Wong and Jason Y. Ng, authors of Unfree Speech, discuss free speech in Hong Kong, coronavirus, and the role of literature in campaigning for global democracy.

March 30, 2020April 27, 2020

Transmissions in the Time of Coronavirus

Read about changes to PEN Transmissions during our current crisis.

March 26, 2020April 27, 2020

How to Quarantine a Revolution

Lebanese writer and actress Dima Mikhayel Matta writes on quarantine, revolution, and being queer in Beirut.