PEN International
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...
. Founded in 1926, it has a membership of over 1,000 writers and supporters who campaign on behalf of writers around the world who are persecuted, imprisoned and exiled for exercising their right to
freedom of expression
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
.
Since its founding, various PEN Centers around the world have campaigned on behalf of such acclaimed writers as Czech playwright
Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then as ...
,
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
winner
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from ...
of Burma, novelist
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...
and Turkey's 2006 Nobel laureate in literature,
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three lan ...
. PEN Canada is a member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange network.
Over the years, PEN Canada membership has included many of the leading figures in the Canadian literary and cultural establishment, including
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
,
Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Louise Clarkson (; ; born February 10, 1939) is a British Hong Kong, Hong Kong-born Canadian journalist who served from 1999 to 2005 as Governor General of Canada, the List of Governors General of Canada#Governors General of Canada, 1 ...
,
John Ralston Saul
John Ralston Saul (born June 19, 1947) is a Canadian writer, political philosopher, and public intellectual. Saul is most widely known for his writings on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-l ...
,
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation ...
and
Yann Martel
Yann Martel, (born 25 June 1963) is a Canadian author who wrote the Man Booker Prize–winning novel ''Life of Pi'', an international bestseller published in more than 50 territories. It has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and spent ...
.
Programs
The Writers in Prison Committee advocates on behalf of 25-30 persecuted, imprisoned and murdered writers in countries such as Myanmar, China, Iran, Turkey, Mexico, Eritrea and Uzbekistan. Since January 2003, PEN Canada has seen the release from prison of 33 Honorary Members. International PEN's Day of the Imprisoned Writer is marked on November 15. The PEN Canada One Humanity Award honours a writer, journalist, academic or PEN Canada Honorary Member outside of Canada.
The Writers in Exile Network establishes partnerships with Canadian universities, colleges and other institutions to create placements for writers who have found asylum in Canada, so that they may re-professionalize their skills in their new country. The City of Toronto/PEN Canada Writer in Exile Fellowship allows a refugee writer to be a member of the Toronto Writers’ Centre for one year.
The TAXI Project and Readers & Writers "explore freedom of expression through the arts" with actors, writers in exile and established and community authors participating in schools and community readings and events.
The Canadian Issues Committee run by PEN Canada acts as a watchdog on legislation and actions in Canada that violate the right to
freedom of expression
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
guaranteed under the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...
.
PEN Canada also participates in Freedom to Read Week by holding events to raise awareness about freedom of expression.
Awards and fellowships
One Humanity Award
The One Humanity Award has been given since 2006 to an international writer, journalist, academic, or honorary PEN member who has endured repression or shown courage in exercising their freedom of expression. The honour has been awarded to:
*
Jiang Weiping
Jiang Weiping (; born c. 1955) is a veteran mainland Chinese journalist known internationally for his arrest by the Chinese Communist Party in 2001.
In 1999, he began publishing a series of articles about the Communist Party corruption in the ...
(2006)
* Maung Thura, aka
Zarganar
Maung Thura "Zarganar" (also called Zaganar, my, ဇာဂနာ; also Zargana, ); born 27 January 1961) is a popular Burmese comedian, film actor, and a film director as well as a fierce critic and often political prisoner of the Burmese mili ...
(2008)
*
Lydia Cacho
Lydia María Cacho Ribeiro (born 12 April 1963) is a Mexican journalist, feminist, and human rights activist. Described by Amnesty International as "perhaps Mexico's most famous investigative journalist and women's rights advocate", Cacho's repor ...
Nasrin Sotoudeh
Nasrin Sotoudeh ( fa, نسرین ستوده) is a human rights lawyer in Iran. She has represented imprisoned Iranian opposition activists and politicians following the disputed June 2009 Iranian presidential elections as well as prisoners sent ...
(2011)
* Liu Xiaobo (2012)
*Nguyễn Văn Hải, aka Dieu Cay (2013)
*
Raif Badawi
Raif bin Muhammad Badawi ( ar, رائف بن محمد بدوي, also transcribed Raef bin Mohammed Badawi; born 13 January 1984) is a Saudi writer, dissident and activist, as well as the creator of the website ''Free Saudi Liberals''.
Badawi wa ...
(2014)
*
Eskinder Nega
Eskinder Nega ( Ge'ez: እስክንድር ነጋ, born 7 November 1969) is an Ethiopian journalist, blogger and politician who has been jailed at least ten times by the Ethiopian government on convictions for treason and terrorism.
Early life
...
Ashraf Fayadh
Ashraf Fayadh ( ar, أشرف فياض, born 1980 in Saudi Arabia) is an artist and poet of Palestinian origin. He is the son of refugees from Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip and lives in Saudi Arabia. He was active in the British-Arabian arts organiza ...
Randy Boyagoda
Soharn Randy Boyagoda (born 1976) is a Canadian writer, intellectual and critic known for his novels ''Governor of the Northern Province'' (2006), ''Beggar's Feast'' (2011), ''Original Prin'' (2018), and ''Dante's Indiana'' (2021). He is also the ...
Charles Foran
Charles William Foran (born August 2 1960) is a Canadian writer in Toronto, Ontario.
Life and career
Foran was born in August 1960 in Toronto, Ontario to a Franco-Ontarian mother and a father from an Ottawa Irish family. He attended Catholic ...
Ann Ireland
Ann Ireland (1953–2018) was a Canadian fiction author who published five novels between 1985 and 2018. Her first novel, ''A Certain Mr. Takahashi'' (1985), was the winner of the Seal $50,000 1st Novel Award. She also wrote 1996's ''The Ins ...
(1998-1999)
*
Katherine Govier
Katherine Mary Govier (born July 4, 1948) is a Canadian novelist and essayist.
Biography
Katherine Govier was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and was educated at the University of Alberta and York University. She has been made a Distinguished Alumna ...
(1997-1998)
* Ron Graham (1996-1997)
*
Nino Ricci
Nino Pio Ricci (born 1959) is a Canadian novelist who lives in Toronto, Ontario.Nino Ricci's ...
(1995-1996)
* Marian Botsford Fraser (1994-1995)
*
Alison Gordon
Alison Ruth Gordon (January 1, 1943 – February 12, 2015) was a Canadian journalist and mystery novelist. She wrote for CBC and the ''Toronto Star'' in addition to a series of mystery novels.
Early life and education
Gordon was born January 1, ...
(1993-1994)
* Louise Dennys (1992-1993)
*
John Ralston Saul
John Ralston Saul (born June 19, 1947) is a Canadian writer, political philosopher, and public intellectual. Saul is most widely known for his writings on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-l ...
(1990-1992)
*
June Callwood
June Rose Callwood, (June 2, 1924 – April 14, 2007) was a Canadian journalist, author and social activist. She was known as "Canada's Conscience".
Callwood achieved acclaim and a loyal following for her articles and columns written for na ...
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
(1984-1986)
See also
*
International PEN
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...
*
PEN America
PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of litera ...
*
PEN Centre Germany
PEN Centre Germany is part of the worldwide association of writers founded in London in 1921, now known as PEN International. One of over 140 autonomous PEN centres around the world, PEN Centre Germany is based in Darmstadt, Hesse.
Work
PEN C ...
*
Kurdish PEN Kurdish PEN or the Kurdish Centre of the International PEN (''Navenda PEN a Kurd'' in Kurdish) is a branch of International PEN. It was suggested by Kurdish writer Hüseyin Erdem and voted into existence during International PEN's conference in Ca ...