PEN Transmissions

November 10, 2020December 3, 2020

Shuddhashar at 30: An Interview with Tutul

Bangladeshi publisher Tutul – with whom Margaret Atwood shared her 2016 PEN Pinter Prize – discusses exile, free thinking, and thirty years of the magazine and publisher Shuddhashar.

October 29, 2020December 3, 2020

Already Bedfellows: A Long Interview with So Mayer

So Mayer discusses fascism, cinema, genderqueerness and freedom of expression.

October 20, 2020November 12, 2020

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.

October 13, 2020January 1, 2021

A Dossier of Hate

Priyamavada Gopal writes on her experience of online hatred, and calls for an end to a politics of hate.

October 7, 2020November 12, 2020

Translating Every Day: The Importance and Impossibility of Decolonising Translation

Kavita Bhanot writes on mother-tongue shame, translating across generations, and decolonising translation.

September 18, 2020October 19, 2020

When an Hour Stretched into A Day

Tsitsi Dangarembga, shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, writes on demonstrating, writing, and being arrested.

September 15, 2020October 19, 2020

On the Other Side of the Door that Leads to Hell: An Interview with Selva Almada

Argentinian writer Selva Almada discusses femicide, violence in lockdown, and how to write historic trauma.

September 9, 2020January 1, 2021

Another Unknown Person Ringing at My Door: A Statement from Svetlana Alexievich

A statement from Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Laureate and Chair of Belarusian PEN.

September 1, 2020September 17, 2020

Hope in a Bottle of Honey

Kurdish writer Nurcan Baysal responds to a letter from Nedim Türfent.

August 25, 2020September 17, 2020

Translating Fascisms

Alex Valente on translating fascism between Italy, the UK and the US.

August 18, 2020October 19, 2020

The Words We Choose: A Roundtable with the International Booker Prize Shortlisted Translators

The shortlisted translators of the 2020 International Booker Prize in conversation with Georgina Godwin.

August 11, 2020September 1, 2020

When I Stop Writing, I Stop Living: An Interview with Maryse Condé

Guadeloupe’s Maryse Condé, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, talks about liberation, satire, and her hopes for the world.

August 4, 2020September 1, 2020

Black Deaths Matter: About My Father

Patrice Lawrence writes about her father, Windrush, and death.

July 28, 2020August 25, 2020

Storms

Barbadian speculative fiction writer Karen Lord writes before and after a storm.

July 21, 2020August 25, 2020

Some Place to Call Home

Yvonne Battle-Felton on listening, fear, and home.

July 17, 2020July 31, 2020

After Saartjie: The Persistence of Prejudice

Dzifa Benson writes on contemporary and historical perceptions of black women’s bodies

July 17, 2020July 31, 2020

Editorial: Black Voices

Our editorial on forthcoming work in PEN Transmissions.

June 30, 2020July 21, 2020

The Global Desi Story: A Conversation with Kritika Pandey

Kritika Pandey, winner of the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, talks about transgressing cultural norms, protesting, and Hinglish.

June 25, 2020July 21, 2020

Exils

To close our series on exile with the British Museum and Edmund de Waal, Scholastique Mukasonga writes a personal experience of exile as a Rwandan Tutsi

June 23, 2020June 30, 2020

Latinx Letters: An Interview with Leo Boix

Leo Boix discusses bilingualism, British Latinx poetry, and race in Latin America.