archive

  • Against labels

    I am an artist, I get to be my home, my own language, my own culture.

  • Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe

    We must welcome those who run away from hunger and war. Lampedusa’s people did it and sent a message to Europe. And Europe has to hear this message.

  • Loosened Locks: on Mahvash Sabet

    A woman walked out of Evin Prison in Tehran late one evening. Her face was pale from long confinement but her eyes shone bright.

  • Die, My Love

    I lay back in the grass among fallen trees and the heat of sun on my palm felt like a knife I could use to bleed myself dry with one swift cut to the jugular.

  • The Writer’s Paradox

    I am writing this in a prison cell. But I am not in prison. I am a writer.

  • The power of place

    This is how my imagination works, I suppose: mysteriously, the process of writing always begins with a place.

  • Elena Varvello on the power of place

    Elena Varvello explores the idea of place as a multitude of characters in her writing.

  • Instructions Within — Andrew McMillan reads Ashraf Fayadh’s poetry

    Andrew McMillan reads the poetry of Ashraf Fayadh, a Palestinian-born writer and artist imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for his work.

  • Editing a book review: a dangerous act in Turkey

    As Cumhuriyet journalists await their verdict in Turkey, Can Bahadır Yüce pays tribute to his imprisoned colleagues and reflects on the link between populism and anti-intellectualism.

  • A conversation with Vigdis Hjorth

    We have to work on two fronts. We have to do something about the structures, and we also have to help the individual.

  • If This is a Lament

    Exclusive preview of the title poem, ‘If this is a lament’, from a new chapbook of work by Turkish poet Bejan Matur, translated by Jen Hadfield and Canan Marasligil.

  • A conversation with Dorthe Nors

    You become an estranged human being, which leads to a certain kind of solitude and loneliness.

  • PEN Atlas Q&A: Mohsin Hamid

    In the first in a series of author interviews about migration and otherness, we speak to novelist and writer Mohsin Hamid.

  • A conversation with Mohsin Hamid

    ‘Even if you’re 75 years old and haven’t left the city you’ve grown up in, you have migrated through time. To me, it feels like the theme of being human is being a migrant.’

  • Is there a crisis in storytelling?

    In an era of increasing self-censorship and blurred lines between truth and fiction, the acclaimed author and translator considers the effects of a tumultuous year on literary creativity.

  • The immortal bird

    To celebrate UN Arabic Language Day, poet and professor Atef Alshaer shares the history, richness and possibilities for the lingua franca of the Arabic world.

  • PEN Atlas Q&A: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

    In conversation with the prolific author, playwright and academic to mark the publication of his latest memoir, Birth of a Dream Weaver.

  • The story of The Book of Dhaka

    The arts editor of the Dhaka Tribune reports from the city’s thriving annual literary festival, where writers and translators came together for a special launch of the latest Comma Press ‘City in Fiction’ anthology – The Book of Dhaka.

  • On Babel, hospitalities and waves

    The founder of Babel festival reflects on its genesis and investigates the role of translation and multilingualism in fostering community.

  • Fragments

    The winner of the European Prize for Literature 2009 writes six new short stories for PEN Atlas to mark the publication of her newest book, Trysting.