English PEN Events

English PEN’s Spring Writers in Public programme has already got off to a great start with sell-out events on European literature at the South Bank Centre and Francis King at the London Review Bookshop. Here are some of the events we have coming up in the next few weeks. Full details of our Writers in Public programme can also be found on the English PEN website: www.englishpen.org

We Are the Readers and Writers!

Thursday 28 January, 6.30pm

Venue: Free Word centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA

Tickets: £3; Ticket price includes a glass of wine and a free copy of The Light of the Lights

English PEN's creative writing department, Readers & Writers, presents a night of new voices from all over the world. Launching their hot-off-the-press book, The Light of the Lights, six writers from the English PEN workshops at the Migrants Resource Centre in Westminster will read poems and prose, hosted by writer Monique Roffey alongside special guests the Rhymes Won't Wait Collective. This new programme supported by the 2012 London Cultural Skills Fund celebrates London's contribution to the diversity of printed and well-crafted expression. Join us for this and our next launch event on March 25. To book, call Amy Oliver on 0207 324 2535 or visit www.englishpen.org/events

Balloon Debate

In association with Kings Place

Monday 1 February, 7pm

Venue: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG

Tickets: £9.50 online, £11.50 offline

A (metaphorical) hot air balloon is dipping dangerously over Croydon. In it are four of our greatest writers - but only one can survive. As the balloon loses height, the audience votes on which author must go, until only one remains. Our panel of four leading writers, Al Alvarez, Rowan Pelling, Deborah Moggach and Hardeep Singh Kohli, will each make an impassioned case for their favourite authors, but their fates are in your hands... Chaired by Jonathan Heawood. To book, call Kings Place Box Office on 0207 520 1490 or book online at www.kingsplace.co.uk

Must You Go?

Monday 9 February, 6.30pm

Venue: Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA

Tickets: £5 PEN Members, £8 Non members, including glass of wine

Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser lived together from August 1975 until Pinter's death thirty-three years later on Christmas Eve 2008. Theirs was one of modern literature's most celebrated marriages and Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter is Antonia Fraser's marvellously insightful testimony to their relationship. Join us in celebrating their life together as Antonia talks to Lisa Appignanesi, president of English PEN. Tickets for this event are already selling fast so do book early to avoid disappointment. To book, call Amy Oliver on 0207 324 2535 or visit www.englishpen.org/events