”Writing of war, amidst its turmoil, reopens old wounds, striving to mend them with memory’s searing balm, even as new wounds bleed. I wrote to confront the past, but it was also a writing to reject a...

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...

“Everyone has the right to tell stories, and everyone should have access to ways of learning to improve and hone their storytelling skills – whether at university or whether in a small village far...

Kurdish poet and journalist Nedim Türfent spent more than six years in Turkish prison for his journalistic work. For PEN/Opp, he describes life behind bars and how letters and literature kept him...

Anka Upala is a well-known contemporary Belarusian writer. Her pseudonym is a reference to Janka Kupala, a classic writer of Belarusian literature. Upala had to leave Belarus because of the...

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...

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...

“You have to choose the words of your answer to the interrogation question obsessively too, because they are going to determine how old you will be when you will be released from prison. And the...

In September 2023, poet Galina Rymbu writes a post on social media. The text moves between Omsk and Lviv and is an attempt to make visible how identities are created and reformulated in relation to...

Poetry and photography may at first glance seem like completely different forms of art. However, we often speak of poetry as something that conveys images. And poetry and photography have the...

To regional officials and entrepreneurs, the relatively unknown linguistic and ethnic diversity within the Russian Federation is a great resource. Travel agencies use enticing terms like “northern...