Andrew Lownie on making the Mountbatten diaries and letters public, and the importance of writers’ access to archives.
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Listening to the Flesh: For Tsitsi Dangarembga
Panashe Chigumadzi on Tsitsi Dangarembga, commissioned to celebrate Dangarembga winning the 2021 PEN Pinter Prize.
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Translating Simone de Beauvoir
Lauren Elkin on translating de Beauvoir’s newly discovered novel The Inseparables.
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He Can Hardly Even Be Approached: On Saadat Hasan Manto
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri on Saadat Hasan
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The Great Homeless of Literature
Selahattin Demirtaş on ‘home’, state-sanctioned writing, and what makes literature literature. Translated by Kate Ferguson.
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Journalation
Anna Aslanyan on the perils of translating news.
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To Dearest, Cherished and Longed Amanuel
Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu writes to Amanuel Asrat on his 50th birthday. Translated by Issayas Beyene.
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By Nanthikadal Lagoon, Our Dreams Lie Rusting in the Mud
Shash Trevett on the poetry of Nillanthan.
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My Mother’s Land Is Over
Worapoj Panpong on family, land, and money. Translated from the Thai by Mui Poopoksakul
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EROSION, A6: Notes on the Waikīkī Blackout Poetry Project
Noʻu Revilla, Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), on the power of ecopoetry
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We Too Are the Trees
Karlo Mila on language, knowledge, and right relationships.
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My Eraser is a Memory
Nayrouz Qarmout writes from Gaza
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Three Years of Solitude
Suad Aldarra’s commission for the 2021 Cúirt International Festival of Literature, part of the PEN x Common Currency residency.
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Those Riding Shotgun
Nadine Anne Hura (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) on climate, making time, and making people listen.
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Writers’ Contributions to the History of Ideas about Rural England and the Colonial Countryside
Corinne Fowler on how writers and writing explore the colonial histories of the English countryside.
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Why We Choose not to See the Old
Dulce Maria Cardoso on ageing. Translated by Ángel Gurría-Quintana.
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Once Again Our Democracy Is at Stake: Illustrating Orwell
Fido Nesti on adapting Nineteen Eighty-Four into a graphic novel in the shadow of Brazilian populism.
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Translating Emergencies
Sophie Lewis on translating Noémi Lefebvre.
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Spicy’s Story
Omid Tofighian and Behrouz Boochani tell the story of Bangladeshi refugee Spicy – across borders, seas and prisons.
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Working Masks
Kikuko Tsumura on making masks work. Translated by Polly Barton.
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Memories of the Fires
El Salvador’s Claudia Hernández on war, women, and burning. Translated by Julia Sanches.
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For Uncle Milton
Robert Jones, Jr. on discovering he was not the only Black, queer member of his family.
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For the Stories, or for the Visa Delays?
Nayrouz Qarmout writes about Edinburgh, Gaza, short stories, and packing her bag.
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Why I Wrote ‘England Street’
Read Jay Bernard’s ‘England Street (Reggae fi Linton)’, commissioned to celebrate Linton Kwesi Johnson winning the 2020 PEN Pinter Prize. Featuring a specially commissioned introduction to the poem from Jay.
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A Dossier of Hate
Priyamavada Gopal writes on her experience of online hatred, and calls for an end to a politics of hate.
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Translating Every Day: The Importance and Impossibility of Decolonising Translation
Kavita Bhanot writes on mother-tongue shame, translating across generations, and decolonising translation.
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When an Hour Stretched into A Day
Tsitsi Dangarembga, shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, writes on demonstrating, writing, and being arrested.
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Another Unknown Person Ringing at My Door: A Statement from Svetlana Alexievich
A statement from Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Laureate and Chair of Belarusian PEN.
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Hope in a Bottle of Honey
Kurdish writer Nurcan Baysal responds to a letter from Nedim Türfent.
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Translating Fascisms
Alex Valente on translating fascism between Italy, the UK and the US.
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PEN Transmissions 