Ahmet Altan was imprisoned in Turkey with his brother Mehmet in September 2016. Despite being denied access to receiving and sending written communications, he wrote The Writer’s Paradox for publication on the eve of his trial, which starts on 19 September. We have been campaigning to raise awareness of Ahmet’s plight as part of our…
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Vigdis Hjorth
Norwegian author Vigdis Hjorth talks to PEN Atlas about her efforts to combine the personal with the political in her novels.
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Dorthe Nors
We speak to Danish writer Dorthe Nors about her latest novel Mirror, Shoulder, Signal and its themes of solitude and loneliness in modern urban society.
Read MoreThe right/write to roam
Inua Ellams discusses how his heritage and his multi-placed identity laid the foundations for his new collection #Afterhours.
Read MoreThe Revolution over Dinner
Elliot Ackerman reflects on the role of fiction in times of conflict. His new novel Dark at the Crossing is published by Daunt Books in April 2017.
Read MorePEN Atlas presents: Svetlana Alexievich in conversation with James Meek
This event was one of Svetlana Alexievich’s few UK public appearances in 2016. She discussed her new book Second-hand Time, translated by Bela Shayevich (Fitzcarraldo Editions, May 2016), and the new edition of Chernobyl Prayer, translated by Anna Gunin and Arch Tait (Penguin Classics, April 2016), to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear…
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Ihor Pavlyuk and Steve Komarnyckyj
The author and translator of A Flight Over the Black Sea (Waterloo Press) talk to PEN Atlas about working together, their inspirations and the power of poetry in times of war.
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Margaret Mazzantini
The author of PEN-supported novel Morning Sea discusses links between writing, revolution and dreaming, and Italy’s complex relationship with emigration
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Jenny Erpenbeck
In this special PEN Atlas Q&A, winner of the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Jenny Erpenbeck shares thoughts on history, narrative and her relationship with her translator
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Peter Stamm
In this PEN Atlas Q&A, PEN Atlas editor Tasja Dorkofikis interviews Peter Stamm, one of Switzerland’s best-known writers and author of the novel All Days Are Night and short story collection We Are Flying, published by Portobello Books this month.
Read MoreThe Red Terror and Maximilian Voloshin
Robert Chandler writes about one of the hidden gems in The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry
Read MoreHow Korean it is
Deborah Smith writes for PEN Atlas about the complex experience of bringing a hit South Korean novel to an English-speaking audience
Read MoreFrom Afrikaans to English: on writing and translating 'The Alphabet of Birds'
S J Naudé writes about the experience of translating your own short story collection
Read MoreFrom Afrikaans to English: on writing and translating ‘The Alphabet of Birds’
S J Naudé writes about the experience of translating your own short story collection
Read More'They were taken alive, alive we want them returned!'
Writers and PEN members all over the world have been supporting the struggle of the parents of the disappeared Mexican students to discover the truth about their children. On 30 November, on my way to the Feria Internacional del Libro [FIL], I attended a press conference in Mexico City. Speakers included relatives of the 6…
Read More‘They were taken alive, alive we want them returned!’
Writers and PEN members all over the world have been supporting the struggle of the parents of the disappeared Mexican students to discover the truth about their children. On 30 November, on my way to the Feria Internacional del Libro [FIL], I attended a press conference in Mexico City. Speakers included relatives of the 6…
Read MorePublishers’ translation highlights 2015
Halt your book purchases: PEN Atlas has everything you need
Read MorePublishers' translation highlights 2015
Halt your book purchases: PEN Atlas has everything you need
Read MoreWhy I write what I write?
Farnoosh Moshiri details the tragic betrayal of the revolution in Iran
Read MoreRain and Bamboo
Juan Tomas Avila Laurel writes from Equatorial Guinea about local literature and languages of faraway places
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