Press Releases
PEN America experts are available for interviews with the press. Please direct inquiries to Suzanne Trimel, Senior Advisor, Communications and Media, at [email protected].
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Burmese Poet Saw Wai Released from Prison
PEN American Center welcomed the release of imprisoned Burmese poet Saw Wai today, calling the release “long overdue.” Saw Wai was freed nearly five months after his sentence expired… More
Poet and Belarusian PEN President Vladimir Neklyayev Detained in Minsk
PEN American Center denounced the coordinated series of raids on the homes and offices of a number of writers, journalists, and activists in Minsk and other cities across Belarus… More
PEN Condemns Sentencing of Journalist Maziar Bahari in Iran
PEN American Center condemned the 13-year sentence handed down to Iranian-Canadian journalist and playwright Maziar Bahari in absentia on May 9, calling the action by the Tehran Revolutionary Court… More
Imprisoned Burmese Blogger Nay Phone Latt Honored in New York
Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Bill Moyers, Walter Mosley, and Patti Smith were among the more than 500 PEN luminaries and supporters joining PEN American Center last night in honoring… More
Uighur PEN Member Ilham Tohti Barred From Travel Outside China
For the second time this spring, the Chinese government has prevented a member of PEN, the worldwide association of writers, from participating in a public program in Europe, a… More
Imprisoned Burmese Blogger Nay Phone Latt to Receive Top PEN Honor
PEN American Center today named Nay Phone Latt, one of Burma’s leading bloggers, as the recipient of its 2010 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. Nay Phone Latt, who… More
Writers Press Iran to Release Jailed Colleagues
A coalition of free expression organizations delivered a petition to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations calling on the Iranian government to release dozens… More
The Sixth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
Salman Rushdie and The PEN American Center today announce the program for the Sixth Annual World PEN Voices Festival of International Literature taking place this year Monday, April 26… More
PEN Election Results: Anthony Appiah Reelected as President of PEN
PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization, announced yesterday the reelection of Kwame Anthony Appiah, the scholar, author, and critic, to… More
Book Groups See Progress on Patriot Act
The Campaign for Reader Privacy today declared that progress is being made in the fight to restore the safeguards for the privacy of bookstore and library records that were… More