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Theme: Tomorrow Club: Young Voices

Article

Dear Hong Kong

Chloe Cheung is born and raised in Hong Kong. She joined the city’s pro-democracy movement when she was 14 years old during the 2019 protests, before going into exile in 2020 to continue her advocacy...

Text by Chloe Cheung April 19 2026
Article

Bangladesh: After the Uprising, the Air Still Feels Thin

For readers outside Bangladesh, the fall of an autocrat might sound like an ending—the final scene, the credits rolling. Inside the country, it has felt more like the first morning after: disorienting...

Text: Redwan Ahmed March 23 2026
Article

Forgotten Myanmar and the Youths that Got Silenced

In February 2021, the military in Myanmar staged a coup against the democratically elected government. The massive protests that followed were brutally suppressed, and freedom of expression has been...

Text: Sai Nyan Linn Sett September 01 2025
Article

The Gloomy Sunday

Writer and PEN Afghanistan member Neelufer Suhrabie writes about that fateful Sunday in August 2021, when the Taliban made their way to the gates of Kabul to seize power for the first time since the...

Text: Neelufer Suhrabie May 28 2025
Poetry

Girls Like Us

Malawian girls take center stage in the poetry by Wongani Nyasulu. Through her writing, Wongani is committed to advocating for gender equality, girls’ education and advancing women's rights. She aims...

Text: Wongani Nyasulu April 24 2025
Article

Power of the Pen

Since December 2022, Louis D.Hall has been working as a manager for NGO Insulate Ukraine. The NGO creates shatterproof, insulating windows for civilians living in the war-torn areas. For PEN/Opp he...

Text: Louis D. Hall December 30 2024
Article

I Was Born Into the possibility of a New World

Ege Dündar was only 19 when his father was imprisoned in Turkey and his life took a different turn. For PEN/Opp he writes about the escape, repression and attacks on his family, but also about the...

Text: Ege Dündar December 30 2024
Poetry

To Patriarchy

Hanna Komar is a Belarusian poet, writer, translator and performer. She's currently taking a PhD at the University of Brighton, exploring how poetry can support Belarusian women to share experiences...

Text: Hanna Komar December 23 2024

Theme: Against the Grain: Writing Resistance

Editorial

Against the Grain: Writing Resistance

As a part of Banned Books Week, PEN/Opp publish an issue edited by the artist Shubigi Rao. The publication is made during a time when book banning is increasing globally in the wake of autocratisation...

Text: Shubigi Rao October 08 2025
Poetry

My Father’s Skin Looks Like the Surface of the Moon

Years ago, I was adamant I’d never write about the war that took place in Bosnia in my infancy. I found the topic passé and though it had nothing to do with me. Poetry laughed at my hubris. Who among...

Text: Selma Asotić October 08 2025
Article

The Philippines and Freedom of Expression

In The Philippines and Freedom of Expression Conchitina Cruz describes the attempted neoliberal takeover and militarization of universities, issues that are of particular global relevance in this...

Text: Conchitina “Chingbee” Cruz October 08 2025
Article

Letter to Tatay

This is a letter penned in jail by Amanda Echanis to her father, peace consultant Randall “Ka Randy” Echanis. Amanda, a writer and organizer of the Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women, was...

Text: Amanda Socorro Lacaba Echanis October 08 2025
Poetry

Ina's song

Reina Mae “Ina” Nasino, a student activist who became a community organizer, was pregnant when she was arrested on fabricated charges on November 5, 2019 with two other activists at their organization...

Text: Mara Peralta October 08 2025
Article

Myles

Myles Albasin had just graduated from University of the Philippines-Cebu when she and five other young activists were arrested in Mabinay, Negros Oriental on March 3, 2018. Like many detained...

Text: Mary Rose Ampoon October 08 2025
Interview

On Shadow Libraries: An Interview with Tomislav Medak

Shubigi Rao in conversation with Tomislav Medak, one of the initiators of Public Library, a book-sharing online project with the tagline ‘when everyone is a librarian, the library is everywhere’. This...

Text: Shubigi Rao October 08 2025
Article

Empty Fields

Gina Alexandra Srmabekian is a writer whose work grapples with transgenerational trauma, memory and identity. She writes about grief because it is the most powerful articulation of love.

Text: Gina Alexandra Srmabekian October 08 2025
Fiction

The Spoils of War Museum

In the wake of the 2020 war over Artsakh and the ethnic cleansing of the Republic that followed in 2023 by Azerbaijan, memory has become a battlefield as fraught as the land itself. “The Spoils of War...

Text: Gina Alexandra Srmabekian October 08 2025
Poetry

Two Poems

Nyree Abrahamian is a Canadian-Armenian writer and creative director based in Yerevan. She produces Country of Dust, an award-winning narrative podcast, and co-founded the Tumanyan International...

Text: Nyree Abrahamian October 08 2025
Poetry

Snowdrops and Other Poems

Ruzanna Grigoryan lives and writes poetry in Yerevan, Armenia.

Text: Ruzanna Grigoryan October 08 2025

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