Writers At Risk
PEN’s bedrock work is long-term advocacy on behalf of individual writers who are being persecuted because of their work. This page features our highest priority cases. With the help of our members and supporters, we are carrying out campaigns to win their release and ensure they are safe and can write and publish freely.
Take a moment to share information about these writers and take action on their behalf. This is only a small sampling of writers under threat around the world.
Ven. Ngawang Phulchung | Status: Released | China/Tibet Autonomous Region
Ven. Ngawang Phulchung is the senior monk from Drepung monastery near Lhasa. He has also been singled out as the leader of the Drepung printing group, which secretly produced… More
Tal Al-Mallouhi | Status: In Prison | Syria
Tal Al-Mallouhi is a student, blogger, and poet from Homs, Syria, serving a five-year sentence for "divulging information to a foreign state." No evidence was disclosed to justify… More
Michel Kilo | Status: Released | Syria
Prominent writer and journalist Michel Kilo contributes to the leading Lebanese daily Al-Nahar and the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Initially, Kilo was arrested on May 14, 2006 when he… More
Aref Dalila | Status: Released | Syria
Dr. Aref Dalila, born in 1942, is a writer and former economics professor and Dean of the Faculty of Economics at Damascus University. He was an advocate of political… More
Tsering Woeser | Status: Under Threat | China
Award-winning Tibetan writer and poet Woeser was born in 1966 in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, where her father was a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army. More
J. S. Tissainayagam | Status: Released | Sri Lanka
J. S. Tissainayagam is a Tamil journalist for the Sunday Times whose articles have also been published in the magazine North-Eastern Monthly. He was also editor of the news… More
Stanislav Dmitrievsky | Status: Under Threat | Russia
Stanislav Dmitrievsky, a human rights advocate, is continually under threat for his work promoting human rights in Chechnya. More
Zouhair Yahyaoui | Status: Deceased | Tunisia
The Freedom to Write Committee mourns the passing of Zouhair Yahyaoui. According to his family, he died of a heart attack on Sunday, March 13, 2005. He was arrested… More
Aung Than & Zeya Aung | Status: Released | Myanmar
Aung Than is a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Zeya Aung is a student at Pegu University. Together they wrote a book of poems called… More
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PEN America On 
Kansas state prisons are continuing to block access to literature by banning hundreds of titles, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel #TheOverstory, as well as books by @neilhimself, Toni Morrison, and Nora Roberts. Read PEN America's statement here: https://bit.ly/358C2cp
Just landed in Detroit and looking forward to tonight 👇🏽 https://twitter.com/attorneynora/status/1199668784878911489
In the U.K, the use of disinformation techniques by political leaders points to an evolution in how the internet is being used to grab attention, distract the news media, stoke outrage, and rally support: https://nyti.ms/2PuLFeN via @nytimes.