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PEN Transmissions

PEN Transmissions

English PEN's magazine for international writing

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All articles filed in history

past futuresJuly 31, 2019August 27, 2019

Living History: a Conversation with Kapka Kassabova

‘Often, we the natives of the Balkans or the Middle East, with our extraordinarily polyphonic histories and hurts, are narrated by others – usually others from the dominant colonising cultures.’

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writing the pastJune 19, 2018

The past is a dimension of the present: a conversation with Javier Cercas

‘I’m not interested in history itself. I’m interested in the past that has not passed.’

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writing the pastJune 19, 2018July 30, 2019

The past and the present side by side: a conversation with Peter Kimani

I am contesting the validity of history as we know it, because what is recorded is never told from the perspective of the victim, it is always the victor.

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archiveFebruary 20, 2014

Imagining the past – a few notes on the art of the historical novel

Otto de Kat writes for PEN Atlas about the risks and benefits of using history in the novel, a device that when used badly can lead to over-writing and when used well serves the novelist like a butler

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