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English PEN's magazine for international writing

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All articles filed in personal essays

personal essaysNovember 2, 2021November 2, 2021

The Mountbatten Materials: Censoring an Archive

Andrew Lownie on making the Mountbatten diaries and letters public, and the importance of writers’ access to archives.

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personal essaysOctober 28, 2021December 8, 2021

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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personal essaysOctober 6, 2021November 2, 2021

Translating Simone de Beauvoir

Lauren Elkin on translating de Beauvoir’s newly discovered novel The Inseparables.

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personal essaysSeptember 10, 2021October 6, 2021

He Can Hardly Even Be Approached: On Saadat Hasan Manto

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri on Saadat Hasan

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personal essaysAugust 26, 2021October 6, 2021

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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personal essaysAugust 11, 2021August 26, 2021

Journalation

Anna Aslanyan on the perils of translating news.

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personal essaysJuly 26, 2021December 23, 2021

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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personal essaysJuly 8, 2021July 26, 2021

By Nanthikadal Lagoon, Our Dreams Lie Rusting in the Mud

Shash Trevett on the poetry of Nillanthan.

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personal essaysJune 19, 2021July 22, 2021

My Mother’s Land Is Over

Worapoj Panpong on family, land, and money. Translated from the Thai by Mui Poopoksakul

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pasifika voices personal essaysJune 10, 2021July 22, 2021

EROSION, A6: Notes on the Waikīkī Blackout Poetry Project

Noʻu Revilla, Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), on the power of ecopoetry

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pasifika voices personal essaysJune 3, 2021July 2, 2021

We Too Are the Trees

Karlo Mila on language, knowledge, and right relationships.

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personal essaysMay 15, 2021June 10, 2021

My Eraser is a Memory

Nayrouz Qarmout writes from Gaza

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personal essaysMay 13, 2021May 28, 2021

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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pasifika voices personal essaysMay 6, 2021May 28, 2021

Those Riding Shotgun

Nadine Anne Hura (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) on climate, making time, and making people listen.

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personal essaysApril 21, 2021May 6, 2021

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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personal essaysApril 14, 2021May 6, 2021

Why We Choose not to See the Old

Dulce Maria Cardoso on ageing. Translated by Ángel Gurría-Quintana.

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personal essaysMarch 30, 2021April 21, 2021

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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personal essaysMarch 16, 2021April 14, 2021

Translating Emergencies

Sophie Lewis on translating Noémi Lefebvre.

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personal essaysMarch 12, 2021March 30, 2021

Spicy’s Story

Omid Tofighian and Behrouz Boochani tell the story of Bangladeshi refugee Spicy – across borders, seas and prisons.

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personal essaysMarch 2, 2021March 16, 2021

Working Masks

Kikuko Tsumura on making masks work. Translated by Polly Barton.

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