In Focus

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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.

    • 25 Feb 2012 Addis Ababa
      Ethiopian PEN Writers’ Congress
    • 29 Feb 2012 san miguel de allende
      San Miguel de Allende Writers Aloud event series
    • 14 Mar 2012 san miguel de allende
      San Miguel de Allende Writers Aloud event series

    The PEN Logo

    PEN Interlnational Logo
    We asked a member from each PEN centre to write a character, an individual letterform, from their own language. We wanted people to write in their own handwriting, using the same kind of pen; and to choose, if possible, a character that is distinctive to that language and alphabet.

    We have characters from 43 of the world’s alphabets in our logo:
    Amharic
    Arabic
    Bengali
    Cherokee
    Chinese Cantonese
    Chinese Mandarin
    Czech
    Danish
    Devanagani
    Egyptian Arabic
    English
    Ewe
    Farsi
    French
    Ga
    German
    Gurmukhi
    Icelandic
    Inuktitut
    Italian
    Japanese
    Kurdish
    Krio
    Malayalam
    Maori
    Nepali
    Norwegian
    Portuguese
    Roman
    Russian
    Serbian
    Slovak
    Spanish
    Swiss German
    Tamil
    Tibetan
    Turkish
    Twi
    Urdu
    Veltic
    Yolngu
    Yoruba
    Zema

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    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.