PEN International Magazine 2009: submissions open for first issue

PEN International Magazine 2009: submissions open for first issue

Coming in Spring 2009:
Volume 59, No. 1: Heaven and Earth
PEN International will lead off in 2009 with an issue timed to coincide with Free the Word!, International PEN's annual springtime festival of world literature in London. It will also share International PEN's literary theme for 2009 and for the festival: Heaven and Earth.
Many elements govern the relationship between Heaven and Earth, from the fantastical paradises created in our imaginations to the most material of concerns. Key concepts include, but are not limited to: faith and reason, hope and disillusionment, ideology and reality, the environment and politics, freedom and imprisonment.
Pen International welcomes submissions exploring the idea of Heaven and Earth in poetry, short stories, essays, articles and excerpts from longer works.
DEADLINE: 16 FEBRUARY 2009 http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/go/pen-international-magazine
PEN International Magazine
'For anyone who believes that words can help us chart a path, PEN International is essential reading' Alberto Manguel
'Reading in the pages of PEN International we celebrate not just our differences but also our common humanity and universal values' Azar Nafisi
PEN International addresses a global audience and features original work by contemporary writers from around the world.
Founded in 1950, the magazine was originally a compendium of reviews of world literature entitled ‘Bulletin of Selected Books'. Over the years, it was expanded to include articles, stories and poems either contributed directly or reprinted from other publications.
The magazine is read by the 145 PEN Centres in 104 countries, as well as readers all over the world.
In 2007, PEN International was relaunched with the ‘Context:' series, featuring a new design, a dedicated editor and special guest writers. ‘Context:' showcases writing from different regions of the world with the express goal of introducing the work of new and established writers to each other and to readers everywhere. It has so far covered Africa and the Middle East. ‘Context: Latin America' will appear in autumn 2008 and ‘Context: Asia/Pacific' in 2009. A special issue will be published in spring 2008 called ‘The Writer Next Door', and will be dedicated to International PEN's annual literary theme of the same name.
Contributors to PEN International have included Adonis, Margaret Atwood, Karel Capek, Siobhan Dowd, Nawal El-Saadawi, Moris Farhi, Antonia Fraser, Nadine Gordimer, Günter Grass, Han Suyin, Liu Hongbin, Chenjerai Hove, Alberto Manguel, Salim Matar, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Ben Okri, Moniro Ravanipour, Salman Rushdie, Wole Soyinka, Hilary Spurling and many others. Previous editors have included Alexandre Blokh and Per Wästberg.
PEN International is supported by UNESCO, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, Bloomberg and an anonymous donor.

Related earlier posts: http://newsfreedomofexpression.blogspot.com/2008/09/pen-international-magazine-2009.html
http://newsfreedomofexpression.blogspot.com/2008/08/international-pen-newsletter-july-2008.html
http://freenewsfreespeech.blogspot.com/2008/07/pen-international-magazine.html

source: http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/internationalpen/