May Featured Case: Ahmed Naji

This month, PEN features the case of 2016 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award winner Ahmed Naji, whose case is emblematic of the widening and escalating crackdown on free expression… More

President Sisi: Release Ahmed Naji

More than 120 writers and artists join PEN America to protest the unjust imprisonment of our colleague, Egyptian novelist and journalist Ahmed Naji, and request his immediate release. More

Xue Deyun | Status: Released | China

Xue Deyun (pen name Ma Zhe) was arrested on January 26, 1998. Xue was sentenced at the Guiyang Municipal People’s Court to five years in prison on charges of… More

Bei Dao | Status: Displaced/In Exile | China

In 1989, Bei Dao was accused of helping to incite the events in Tiananmen Square, and was forced into exile from China. Since then, he has lived in seven… More

Jewher Ilham: My Father, My Country

While China’s president is engaging in dialogue with those who disagree with him on many issues, scores of dissidents will be languishing in the prisons that his government… More

Nasrin Sotoudeh Returns to Prison

Nasrin Sotoudeh was returned to Evin Prison late Monday night after a short, three-day furlough, her husband Reza Khandan reports. On a Facebook page dedicated to Nasrin's release, Reza… More

Bernardo Arevalo Padron

Bernardo Arévalo Padrón | Status: Released | Cuba

Bernardo Arévalo Padrón was arrested in August 1997 and charged with "insulting and contemptuous behavior" towards then-President Fidel Castro, for which he was sentenced to six years in prison.… More