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Theme: Writers in exil

Editorial

Writers in exil

It is now ten years since Swedish PEN started its international online publication PEN/Opp, which up until 2019 was...

Editorial: Marit Kapla September 10 2021
Poetry

Selected Poems by Mizar Kemal

Mizar Kemal is an Iraqi poet and journalist. He is a guest writer in the Swedish city of Stockholm. These poems were translated in a workshop in the city of Umeå, north of Sweden, during the...

Poems: Mizar Kemal May 29 2022
Interview

Not my Egypt

Ahmed Naji is trying to understand the zeitgeist. In the 36 years of his life he has witnessed dictatorship, revolution, counter-revolution, military coup, jail and exile. Ahmed Naji’s story is unique...

Interview by Edgar Mannheimer February 19 2022
Fiction

Scabs on the soul

PenOpp publishes a chapter from the Turkish author Barbaros Altuğ's novel Spiritual Wounds, which was published in Turkish last year. The novel's main character Derin, a Turkish journalist who grew up...

Text: Barbaros Altuğ January 21 2022
Article

Return to the Nightmare

Dara Abdallah is a Syrian poet and writer, born in the city of Qamishli in 1990. He lives in Berlin since 2013, and studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Humboldt University. He...

Text: Dara Abdallah December 17 2021
Poetry

Poem by Hoda Khamosh

Hoda Khamosh is poet, media activist, and women’s rights activist from Afghanistan. She attended the Merci Poetry Festival in Gotenburg the 4 th of September through a recorded video. She read this...

Poem: Hoda Khamosh September 24 2021
Article

Crisis and Unrepresentability

PEN/Opp publishes “Crisis and unrepresentability” – a new written lecture by the Syrian author, thinker and the Tucholsky Prize winner Yassin Al-Haj Saleh. The lecture was previously presented in...

Text: Yassin Al-Haj Saleh September 10 2021

Theme: Lebanon

Editorial

A Tribute to the Land of the Cedar Trees

The economic crisis in Lebanon is so deep that it is described by the World Bank as one of the worst to hit any country...

Chief-in-editor: Kholod Saghir June 18 2021
Article

The International and Constitutional Lebanese Entity

The Lebanese paradox can be formulated as follows: while the Lebanese idea of an independent state, recognised and proclaimed by all its citizens, has expanded and survived a terrible war, the...

Text: Farès Sassine September 03 2021
Poetry

Beirut, 4th of August 2020, a poem by Akl Awit

Akl Awit born 1952, is a Lebanese poet, critic, university lecturer, journalist and writer for the Lebanese daily An-Nahar. He teaches Arabic literature at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. Awit has...

Poem: Akl Awit August 27 2021
Article

Lebanon and Freedom of Speech

In this article, the Lebanese author and lawyer Alexandre Najjar shortly explains the historical significance of Lebanese freedom of expression for the Arab world and the challenges it is facing today...

Text: Alexandre Najjar August 20 2021
Article

Fragments of a Grieving Memory

Following the catastrophic explosion in the port of Beirut on August 4 last year, writing became impossible for the Lebanese writer Najwa Barakat. Now that she is attempting to get back to her writing...

Text: Najwa Barakat August 13 2021
Article

To visit Lebanon after a revolution, explosion and collapse.

Today it is exactly one year since the port explosion in Beirut occurred. Over 200 people died and as many became homeless. PEN/Opp asked Bissane El-Cheikh, a respected Lebanese journalist, to write a...

Text: Bissane El-Cheikh August 04 2021
Fiction

Beirut in my heart

Alexandre Najjar who was born in Beirut in 1967 is a writer, literary critic and lawyer who shares his time between Beirut and Paris. He has written some thirty books, including historical novels. He...

Text: Alexandre Najjar June 18 2021

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