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      Every year, PEN International hosts a number of events around the world promoting freedom of expression and celebrating literature in a variety of ways. PEN Centres stage events such as literary festivals large and small, storytelling sessions with families and children, book clubs and everything in between. One important occasion to mark is the annual Day of the Imprisoned Writer, 15 November, which gives the entire PEN community a chance to celebrate our work across the world as well as drawing attention to the ongoing persecution faced by many writers today.

    • 16 May 2012 Bled
      Writers for Peace Committee Bled Conference
    • 12 Jun 2012 Barcelona
      Girona Manifesto Presentation
    • 17 Jun 2012 АР Крым,
      THE 4TH URAL – ALTAY PEN CENTRES SOLIDARITY NETWORK CONFERENCE

    Irish PEN Award and Dinner


    10 Feb 2012. 19:00 - 23:30
    Royal St George Yacht Club, Dún Laoghaire, Ireland

    Tickets
    Websitehttp://www.irishpen.com/wordpress/the-irish-pen-2012-calendar-of-events/

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    In 1998 Irish PEN set up an award to honour an Irish-born writer who has made an outstanding contribution to Irish Literature. This Award is for a significant body of work, written and produced over a number of years, and is open to novelists, playwrights, poets, scriptwriters etc.

    Members of Irish PEN, as well as previous winners nominate and vote for the candidate. In keeping with the tradition started at the W.B. Yeats dinner in 1935, the writer is presented with the Award in the company of other writers at our annual dinner.

    This year Irish PEN are delighted to be honouring Joseph O’Connor with the Irish PEN Award. The Award will be presented by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins on 10 February 2012 at the annual Irish PEN dinner, held at the Royal St George Yacht Club.

    Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. He is the author of the novels Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls, as well as a number of bestselling works of non-fiction. He has also written film scripts and stage-plays including the award-winning Red Roses and Petrol. His novel Star of the Sea was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies and being published in 38 languages. It won France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Neilsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, anAmerican Library Association Award, the Hennessy / Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year.

    He was recently voted Irish Writer of the Decade by the readers of Hot Press magazine. He broadcasts a popular weekly radio diary on RTE’s Drivetime With Mary Wilson and writes regularly for The Guardian Reviewand The Sunday Independent. In 2009 he was the Harman Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Baruch College, the City University of New York. His most recent novel Ghost Light was published in June 2010 to rave reviews internationally and spent nine weeks as a number one Irish besteller. It was chosen as Dublin’s One City One Book novel for 2011.

    PEN International celebrates literature and promotes freedom of expression. Founded in 1921, our global community of writers now spans more than 100 countries. Our campaigns, events, publications and programmes aim to connect writers and readers wherever they are in the world.