PEN/Opp has posed the following question to some authors with a Kurdish background, who write in other languages, first and foremost in Turkish: – In the history of literature, we find authors who...
As an admirable reader of his second novel Masumlar (Innocents) I was looking for an opportunity to meet with Burhan Sonmez in person, but it was not realized until our common friend Moris Farhi put...
PEN/Opp publishes an exclusive interview with author Oksana Zabuzhko, made by Stefan Ingvarsson. At the time for the interview, Oksana Zabuzhko stayed at a writer's residence in the city of Gdańsk...
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...
The Tucholsky Prize for 2021 is awarded to the Belarusian poet Dmitry Strotsev. The prize is awarded by Swedish PEN and is handed out today by the Minister for Culture of Sweden in connection to...
Hassan Blasim is a writer, poet, and film director who has been called "perhaps the best living Arab writer.” His international breakthrough was with his acclaimed collection of short stories Iraqi...
Ten years have passed since the start of what is popularly called “The Arab Spring,” a series of revolutions that began in Tunisia when the vegetable dealer Mohammed Bouazizi self-immolated in protest...
This is a shorter version of an interview made by Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies with the Syrian poet and the Tucholsky prize winner (2007) Faraj Bayrakdar. Bayrakdar, who had first...
“ Can you work in Minsk these days? ” Johan Öberg asks Svetlana Alexievich. He is in Gothenburg, she is in Minsk, and they are speaking in a live interview - the finale of this year ’ s digital...
Conversation: Svetlana Alexievich & Johan Öberg
December 01 2020
Betlehem Isaak is a writer and activist. Her debut My Life without You, came out in March 2020 and is the story of her childhood in Sweden and Eritrea, about living in the shadow of her father, the...
The academic and activist Ilham Tohti had fought for twenty years for Uyghur rights and to enhance a dialogue between the Uyghur and the Han Chinese, before he was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment...
Bao Pu runs the publishing house New Century Press in Hong Kong that has published several politically sensitive books. In Jojje Olsson’s interview Bao Pu describes a Hong Kong that once had a...
President Nicolás Maduro was recently sworn in for a new six-year term of office. No democratic country recognises him as the legitimate leader of the country, but that doesn’t stop the regime. The...
The PEN International Women’s Manifesto is now a year old. It has during this year been circulated round the world. The important message has been welcomed by literature and publishing circles and has...
