PEN Atlas editor Tasja Dorkofikis talks to critically acclaimed writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Read MoreOf Poets and Aviators: Tagore, Neruda, Césaire
Colombian author Santiago Gamboa writes for PEN Atlas, telling the amazing story of his poet friend and what he was asked to do one day in his job as an air traffic controller
Read MoreWalking the Tightrope: Globalisation and Localism
Michele Hutchison explores the globalisation debate for PEN Atlas, whether authors consciously write for an international market and what that means for authenticity
Read MoreThe Wizard and the Ghetto
PEN Atlas explores the story of a Polish hero, Janusz Korczak, the children’s author who ran an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto
Read MoreDay of the Dead 2012
To celebrate Day of the Dead, starting today in Mexico and throughout the world, PEN Atlas reports on the history of the festival, the poetry it has inspired, and its ongoing political relevance
Read MoreFiction Uncovered writers and their favourite books in translation
Fiction Uncovered, is the annual promotion that celebrates the best of contemporary British fiction by selecting eight contemporary writers and promoting their books through its website, promotions in bookshops, author events, and its pop-up radio station, Fiction Uncovered FM. The PEN Atlas asked the selected writers to choose their favourite books in translation.
Read MoreLiterary festivals: playground or construction site?
This week’s PEN Atlas piece reports from the Tanpınar literary festival in Turkey. Journalist Ece Temelkuran gives her personal response to this year’s festival
Read MorePEN Atlas recommends: ITD2012 speakers on their favourite translated books
To celebrate the annual International Translation Day symposium, taking place tomorrow at King’s Place, London, Tasja Dorkofikis asks speakers to recommend their favourite writers in translation
Read MorePEN Atlas – Editor’s Round Up
In the first of a monthly series, PEN Atlas editor Tasja Dorkofikis rounds up some of the highlights so far, and suggests some great further reading for our literary travellers
Read MorePEN Atlas – Editor's Round Up
In the first of a monthly series, PEN Atlas editor Tasja Dorkofikis rounds up some of the highlights so far, and suggests some great further reading for our literary travellers
Read MoreEntertainment for the Middle Classes? – The success of Herman Koch
Over a million copies sold, multiple translations, adapted for the stage – does Herman Koch’s The Dinner show a new way for Dutch literature? Michele Hutchison investigates for PEN Atlas
Read MoreScottish Translation
Sold-out translation duels, ninjas versus saints… Daniel Hahn reports from Edinburgh for PEN Atlas
Read MoreHistory and hysteria: The private libraries of dictators
Gazmend Kapllani on the books that were damned and banned during the communist regime in Albania for PEN Atlas
Read MoreGrammar and Glamour: On Translating Diego Marani’s New Finnish Grammar
Following our previous PEN Atlas piece by Diego Marani, his English translator Judith Landry talks us through the strange music of Finnish and translation as walking a tight-rope
Read MoreTranslation as a Creative Process
In this week’s PEN Atlas piece, award-winning Italian writer and European Commission official Diego Marani considers the role of the author in the translation process.
Read MoreWomen Writers, Part I
PEN Atlas contributor Krys Lee considers the impact of Kyung-sook Shin’s Man Asian Literary Prize win and where Korean women writers stand today
Read MoreMemories put in mothballs
In his second despatch for the PEN Atlas, Athens’s based Gazmend Kapllani looks back to the Greek Civil War and considers what effect Civil War has had on the nation’s literature
Read MoreHow international is poetry?
When the projection fails during the Finnish poet Olli Heikkonen’s reading and the slides with parallel Dutch and English translations disappear from the stage, poetry suddenly doesn’t seem that international anymore.
Read MoreThe Debut Generation
In Soviet times there was a concept known as ‘young writers’. It was in fact a class concept. A budding writer was expected to descend from the working class and to glorify the Soviet regime. All facilities were provided for this purpose, such as the Gorki Literary Institute, founded to teach workers creative writing.
Read MoreSelma Dabbagh reports from the Palestine Festival of Literature: Part 3
In her third PEN Atlas despatch, British Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh reflects on Palfest, dealing with criticism, and what freedom feels like
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