2010 in Review‏ : PEN American Center

WHO WE ARE WHAT WE DO HOW TO HELP WORLD VOICES ADVOCACY PRESS 2010 in Review‏ : PEN American Center 2010 was an exceptional year for the PEN American Center and our essential callings to protect free expression and to promote literature. The crowning moment was the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to former International Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) President Liu Xiaobo, renowned writer and political activist. From our New Year's Eve rally on the steps of the New York Public Library, to his poetry we had translated and read by PEN Members, to Anthony Appiah's nomination of Liu for the Nobel and his recent testimony before a Congressional committee, our championing of Liu's cause was at the center of our work. Recently, a friend of Liu and his wife wrote to PEN on their behalf, commending PEN's "brilliant efforts," which he called "truly admirable, and indispensible to our cause." In addition to our campaign on Liu's behalf, PEN is monitoring more than 1,000 writers in prison, on trial, or under threat in more than 90 countries and actively campaigning on behalf of more than 150 writers in prison at any given moment. Nor do the threats to free expression come only from the imprisonment of those who dare to speak. PEN's 2010 free expression advocacy programming included "State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico," presented in partnership with Mexican PEN to call attention to the violent silencing of Mexican journalists; "Secularism, Islam, and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West," Tariq Ramadan's first U.S. program; and "Faith and Free Speech," a video presented in Geneva at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council to counter recent initiatives aimed at prohibiting speech considered blasphemous. Our work for free expression goes hand in hand with our promotion of literature, as we strive to build connections among literary cultures across borders. This year we celebrated the sixth anniversary of the PEN World Voices Festival that featured both acclaimed international and American writers, such as Toni Morrison, Richard Ford, Roddy Doyle, and Ben Okri; we published the 12th and 13th issues of PEN America, our award-winning literary journal; and we presented literary awards honoring the achievement of writers and translators in 14 categories, including two new awards: the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing and the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award. Among this year's winners were Don DeLillo, Anne Carson, Theresa Rebeck, and Paul Harding. In other areas, PEN's Readers & Writers Program doubled its instruction hours in the Summer Writing Institute for public high school students; PEN's Prison Writing Program received 1,400 submissions from inmates nationally for the 2010 Prison Writing Contest and is distributing a new edition of its Handbook for Writers in Prison; and we continued to support translation through grants, online translation slams, and the fourth annual online Translation Feature. All of this, of course, happens because of the generous contributions of PEN Members and supporters. Your support of PEN confirms your belief in the power of free expression and literature to enrich every aspect of human life. "Against oppression we must be armed," as Gabriel García Márquez wrote to PEN, "with the weapons of intelligence and the word--which fortunately are ours ..." Please consider making a contribution to help support our ongoing efforts. All of us here at PEN will be most grateful. Sincerely, Steven L. Isenberg Executive Director, PEN American Center

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PEN American Center | 588 Broadway, Suite 303 | New York | NY | 10012

English PEN Events November 2010

tO All,

Tickets for next Tuesday’s talk, An Evening with Alberto Manguel, are selling fast- book now for what promises to be a fascinating discussion. Later in the month PEN will be present at the Richmond upon Thames Literature Festival with several events, including a performance of Another Sky to mark the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. Then, on November 17, PEN will be holding a joint event with Index on Censorship as a preview to the launch of Index’s December issue, which will be dedicated to the Writers in Prison Committee’s 50^th anniversary.

Information about all these events, and more, can be found on our website. We hope to see you at a PEN event soon!

Telling Tales: An Evening with Alberto Manguel

Tuesday 9 November, 6.30pm

Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London SW16 3DB

£8/£5 PEN Members

New patron of the English PEN Readers & Writers programme Alberto Manguel will read from his new book - All Men Are Liars - and discuss the contradictory and the unreliable in conversation with writer Tibor Fischer. Where can you find truth in a world ruled by lies? In his new fictional tribute to falsehood, Manguel pays homage to literature and its shape-shifting inventions. A rare treat to see this international star writer, this is a perfect night out for readers and writers and liars everywhere.

Tibor Fischer was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his first novel, Under the Frog, which also won a Betty Trask Award, and he was nominated as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Subsequent works include The Thought Gang, The Collector Collector, Don't Read this Book if You're Stupid and Voyage to the End of the Room. His latest book Good to be God was published by Alma Books in 2008.

To book, please call 020 7324 2535 or visit our website.

Libel and Science Writing: Simon Singh

Thursday 11 November, 7.30pm

Bingham, 61-63 Petersham Rd, TW10 6UT

£5/£4 concessions

Simon Singh is the author of a number of bestselling books on science and mathematics, including Fermat’s Last Theorem and The Code Book. In April 2008 he was sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association, after an article based on his latest book ‘Trick or Treatment?’ was published in The Guardian. Simon has since become a spokesman and poster-boy for the Libel Reform Campaign, calling for a law that allows scientists and doctors to publish their opinions without fear of a writ. Join him to discuss the art of science writing, why the libel law is not fit for purpose... and why “geek culture” is taking over the world.

To book, please call 020 8831 6494 or visit the Richmond upon Thames Literature Festival website.

Day of the Imprisoned Writer: Another Sky

Monday 15 November, 7.30pm

The Coach House, Orleans House Gallery, Riverside, Twickenham, TW1 3DJ

£3/£2 concessions/students/PEN members

"I am now convinced, more than ever, that the path of literature is the assured way to human salvation and to civilisation. I hail the power of the pen."

These are the words of poet, novelist and screenwriter and one of Nigeria's most beloved writers Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was hanged on 10 November 1995 for speaking out against Nigeria's successive military governments. His will be one of the seven silenced voices to be brought to life by King's College PEN, English PEN's inaugural student group, when they bring their sell-out performance of 'Another Sky: Voices of Conscience from around the world' to the Richmond Upon Thames Literature Festival. The performance, directed by Abbie Bergstrom and Susie Christensen and featuring seven King's students, is composed of extracts from English PEN's 2007 anthology of the work of persecuted and imprisoned writers.

The event, which will take place on the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer, will open with a keynote speech by esteemed author Moris Farhi MBE, a longstanding and invaluable member of PEN, former chair of English PEN's Writers in Prison Committee, and current Vice President of PEN International.

To book, please call 020 8831 6494 or visit the Richmond upon Thames Literature Festival website.

Because Writers Speak Their Minds

Wednesday 17 November, 7.15pm

Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL

£5/£5 concessions

Jo Glanville, editor of Index on Censorship, will join Carole Seymour-Jones, Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee, and President of English PEN, Lisa Appignanesi in conversation with Maureen Freely. This event will preview a very special issue of Index on Censorship, to be launched in December, which will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of English PEN's Writers in Prison Committee. With their combined legacies of campaigning for oppressed writers around the world, this panel discussion promises an eye-opening debate across the wide-ranging issues affecting writers in all genres, in war-torn countries as well as at home in the UK and other supposedly 'free' Western nations. Held in association with Warwick Arts Centre.

To book, please call the box office on 024 7652 4524.

Immigration and Literature: Kamila Shamsie & Lisa Appignanesi

Thursday 18 November, 7.30pm

The Langdon Down Centre, Normansfield, 2A Langdon Park, Teddington TW11 9PS

£3/£2 concessions

Britain has always been a hub for international artists. The English language and our commonwealth ties make us an attractive destination for aspiring artists and internationally acclaimed writers alike. Join two such writers, acclaimed novelist Kamila Shamsie and English PEN President Lisa Appignanesi, to discuss the value that immigrant writers bring to British cultural life... and how we might stem the flow of cultural capital away from our shores. Presented in collaboration with the Manifesto Club.

To book, please call 020 8831 6494 or visit the Richmond upon Thames Literature Festival website.

PEN News: September 24, 2010‏

WHO WE ARE WHAT WE DO HOW TO HELP WORLD VOICES ADVOCACY PRESS UPCOMING EVENTS September 23- October 3: The 76th International PEN Congress takes places place in Tokyo over the next 10 days. >> More October 13: 2010 PEN Literary Awards Ceremony Winners of this year's awards will be honored at Proshansky Auditorium, CUNY Graduate Center. >> More October 19: State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico Join PEN for an evening of solidarity with Mexican journalists. >> More November 8: New Members/ New Books Party Celebrate new PEN Members and honor those who have published books this year. >> More FIND PEN ONLINE · Facebook · Twitter · Blogspot · iTunes · YouTube · Flickr Advocacy News Writers Urge U.N. to Abandon Efforts to Prohibit Defamation of Religions At a panel held in conjunction with the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, writers and free-expression advocates from around the world warned of the potential harm in imposing legal restrictions on expression considered offensive or defamatory to religions. >> More Watch Faith and Free Speech: Defamation of Religions and Freedom of Expression Watch video statements on faith and free speech presented at the U.N. side-session by Wole Soyinka, Ariel Dorfman, Azar Nafisi, and K. Anthony Appiah Writer Liao Yiwu Finally Permitted to Travel Outside China The Chinese government lifted its travel ban against renowned writer and Independent Chinese PEN Center Board Member Liao Yiwu, who is traveling in Germany to appear in several literary festivals in the coming weeks. >> More New at PEN Announcing the 2010 PEN Literary Awards Winners PEN awarded 14 prizes to writers at work in a variety of genres. From fiction and drama to translation, biography, and poetry, the works of this year's award recipients often find man in a world of madness and violence, seeking salvation across physical, spiritual, and linguistic borders. Read excerpts from the Literary Awards Feature See the complete list of this year's winners PEN Welcomes New Director of World Voices Festival PEN is pleased to welcome László Jakab Orsós as the new Director of the World Voices Festival and Public Programs. Orsós, an accomplished journalist and screenwriter, comes to PEN from the Hungarian Cultural Center, where he served as its Director. >> More PEN at the Brooklyn Book Festival As part of this year's Brooklyn Book Festival, PEN hosted a special bookend quiz event, an anniversary reading, and an authors' lounge at the PEN booth featuring a series of author interviews throughout the day. >> More PEN Freedom to Write: 50th Anniversary Reading RingShout: Eisa Ulen, Bridgett Davis, Martha Southgate, and Chris Jackson in Conversation

Announcing the Recipients of the 2010 PEN Literary Awards‏

WHO WE ARE WHAT WE DO HOW TO HELP WORLD VOICES ADVOCACY PRESS PEN Announces the Recipients of the 2010 PEN Literary Awards PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world's oldest literary and human rights organization, announced today the winners of the 2010 PEN Literary Awards. Each year, with the help of its partners and supporters, PEN confers over $100,000 to writers, editors, and translators. Two new prizes are included in this year's awards: The PEN/Edward and Lily Tuck Award for Paraguayan Literature and The PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. The winners and runners-up will be honored on Wednesday, October 13, at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. The ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception. PEN/SAUL BELLOW AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN AMERICAN FICTION ($25,000) Winner: Don DeLillo PEN/ROBERT BINGHAM FELLOWSHIP FOR WRITERS ($35,000) Winner: Paul Harding for Tinkers (Bellevue Literary Press) Runners-up: Terrence Holt for In the Valley of the Kings (W. W. Norton & Company) Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa for Daughters of the Stone (Thomas Dunne Books) PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD ($5,000) Winner: Michael Scammell for Koestler (Random House) Runners-up: Jonathan Bate for Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare (Random House) Graham Farmelo for The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom (Basic Books) PEN/W.G. SEBALD AWARD FOR A FICTION WRITER IN MID-CAREER ($10,000) Winner: Susan Choi PEN/LAURA PELS FOUNDATION AWARD FOR A MASTER AMERICAN DRAMATIST (Prize consists of a gift from Bauman Rare Books) Winner: David Mamet PEN/ LAURA PELS FOUNDATION AWARD FOR AN AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT IN MID-CAREER ($7,500) Winner: Theresa Rebeck PEN/ESPN AWARD FOR LITERARY SPORTS WRITING ($5,000) Winner: Marshall Jon Fisher for A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played (Crown) Runners-up: Wil Haygood for Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson (Knopf) Richard Hoffer for Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (Free Press) Warren St. John for Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town (Spiegel & Gray) PEN/PHYLLIS NAYLOR WORKING WRITER FELLOWSHIP ($5,000) Winner: Pat Schmatz PEN/VOELCKER AWARD FOR POETRY ($5,000) Winner: Marilyn Hacker PEN/TUCK AWARD FOR PARAGUAYAN LITERATURE ($3,000) Winner: Esteban Bedoya for El apocalipsis según Benedicto (Arandurã Editorial) PEN AWARD FOR POETRY IN TRANSLATION ($3,000) Winner: Anne Carson for her translation from the Greek of An Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides (Faber & Faber) Runners-up: Seamus Heaney for his translation from the Scots of The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables by Robert Henryson (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) Rika Lesser for her translation from the Swedish of Mozart's Third Brain by Göran Sonnevi (Yale University Press) PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE ($3,000) Winner: Michael Henry Heim for his translation from the Dutch of Wonder by Hugo Claus (Archipelago Books) Runners-up: Esther Allen for her translation from the Spanish of Rex by Jose Manuel Prieto (Grove Press) David Constantine for his translation from the German of Faust 2 by Goethe (Penguin Classics) PEN OPEN BOOK AWARDS ($1,000) Winners: Sherwin Bitsui for Flood Song (Copper Canyon Press) Robin D.G. Kelley for Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press) Canyon Sam for Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge (University of Washington Press) More information about the PEN Literary Awards can be found at www.pen.org/awards. Or contact: Nick Burd, (212) 334-1660 ext. 108 Elizabeth Weinstein, (212) 334-1660 ext. 120

Tuesday, October 19: State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico

Tuesday, October 19: State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico

WHO WE ARE WHAT WE DO HOW TO HELP WORLD VOICES ADVOCACY PRESS UPCOMING EVENTS October 21: Global Piano and Literary Salon: The Soul of Cuba Explore Cuban culture through music, readings, food, wine, and lively conversation. >> More November 4: Boris Pahor's Necropolis: A Slovenian Story of Culture, Conflict, and Persecution How did Trieste become an epicenter of racist violence a decade before the Nazis came to power? >> More November 8: New Members/ New Books Party PEN welcomes new Members and honors those who have had new books published this year. >> More State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico Tickets: $15/$10 for PEN Members and students with valid ID. Visit smarttix.com or call (212) 868-4444. An Evening in Solidarity with Mexican Journalists When: Tueday, October 19 Where: The Great Hall, Cooper Union, 7 E. 7th Street, New York City What time: 7 p.m. With readings by Paul Auster, Jon Lee Anderson, Don DeLillo, Laura Esquivel, José Luis Martínez, Francine Prose, Jose Zamora, and poets Víctor Manuel Mendiola and Luis Miguel Aguilar Followed by a conversation with Carmen Aristegui (CNN en Español) and Adela Navarro Bello (Tijuana-based magazine Zeta); moderated by Julia Preston (The New York Times) At least eight journalists have been murdered in Mexico in 2010 alone, and many more have been kidnapped, threatened, or disappeared. Still, in towns and cities throughout the country, journalists are daily defying Mexico's "censorship by bullet" to expose critical truths. Renowned Mexican and American journalists and authors come together for an evening of readings and conversation to call attention to the silencing of Mexican journalists trying to investigate drug-related violence in their country, especially on the U.S./Mexico border. Co-presented by PEN American Center, the PEN Club de México, and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Co-sponsored by The Cooper Union and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Press Contacts: Isabelle Deconinck: (212) 727-7662 David Haglund: (212) 334-1660, ext. 115

Belarus Free Theatre, Comedy: Miriam Elia and The Fix, DJs from Panik

Go East! Sun 29 Aug: Belarus Free Theatre, Comedy: Miriam Elia and The Fix, DJs from Panik

Friday, August 27

Index on Censorship presents…

Go East! Sun 29 Aug

Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club , E2 6NB

Belarus Free Theatre * Comedy: Miriam Elia , The Fix * DJs from Panik.com

A day and night of cabaret, comedy and DJs, with a performance from the sensational underground Belarus Free Theatre!

Join Index on Censorship, the UK ’s leading freedom of expression organisation, and the Belarus Free Theatre at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, for a packed night of cabaret, comedy from Sony award short listed Miriam Elia and The Fix - and all-night mischief. Come and see a mischievous mix of Belarusian funk DJs, live music, cabaret and comedians - all for the exceptionally brave people who dare to speak up, and challenge Belarus’s dictator Lukashenko.

24 hours left to get £5 tickets:

http://go-east.eventbrite.com/

The multi-award winning Belarus Free Theatre, banned in their native Belarus , is renowned for staging underground and uncensored performances that draw attention to the continuing problems faced by Belarusians in “ Europe ’s last dictatorship”. Their recent performances, including at the Soho Theatre, London and the Under the Radar Festival, New York , have won widespread acclaim. On July 13 the troop performed a rendition of ‘Numbers’ in an event hosted by Index on Censorship and presented by Tom Stoppard at the Free Word Centre in London .

Confirmed DJs: Panik, Mr. Chips, DJ Perry Stroika and the Tblisi Sound Machine & DJ Gaz Nost.

Reviews of the Belarus Free Theatre:

"Intensely dramatic and extremely well acted… they are truly gifted, devoted, utterly focused… I feel humbled… these are people are on the barricades, they're brave"

Sir Tom Stoppard

‘This dazzling production... shows a spiritual resilience that makes dictatorship look even more inflexible and absurd.’

The Guardian *****

‘As gripping and accomplished a piece of theatre as you’ll find in London this year… this is world class theatre, built on the raw guts of experience’

The Telegraph *****

24 hours left to get £5 tickets:

http://go-east.eventbrite.com/

Michael Harris
Public Affairs Manager
Index on Censorship

mike@indexoncensorship.org

m: 07974 838468

t: 0207 324 2534

New PEN Reads Post by Jaime Manrique Now Online‏

PEN READS: THE HOUR OF THE STAR A new entry has been posted at PEN Reads, an online reading group that brings together readers and writers to discuss works of literature relevant to PEN's mission. In this third post, Jaime Manrique examines the movie adaptation of Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star, the first book chosen for PEN Reads. Read earlier posts by Colm Tóibín and Ben Moser. Susana Amaral's The Hour of the Star by Jaime Manrique Great novels are seldom, if ever, successfully translated to the screen (Luchino Visconti's film adaptation of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard is the one exception that immediately comes to mind). Wonderfully accomplished novels fare better (just to mention a few recent adaptations, think of Ang Lee's The Ice Storm and Mira Nair's The Namesake, fine movies made from eponymous novels). Still, more good novels fail than succeed in the attempt. In fact, it is a commonplace to say that, in general, minor novels make the best movies. Then what about Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star? It is a novel that is short on narrative but big on interiority, peppered with goofy philosophical musings, and has at its center the character, Macabea, who is described by the novel's narrator as "simple minded," and as "a creature from nowhere with the expression of someone who apologizes for occupying too much space." Though The Hour of the Star, Lispector's final work, is hardly the stuff out of which good movies are made, Amaral's film adaptation comes as a refreshing surprise to the readers acquainted with the novel. I will not go as far as to say that I prefer the movie to the original novel, but I would like to argue that Susana Amaral's film expands the confines of the novel and enriches the narrative, adding layers of feeling that the novel doesn't have. It achieves this, I think, by turning the "unformed" Macabea into an unforgettable movie creation. I would even go as far as to say that thanks to Amaral's movie, Macabea has finally come fully to life. Read the entire post and join the discussion online at PEN.org.

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