Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk joins PEN International leadership as Vice President
“We are honoured to welcome Olga Tokarczuk as Vice President of PEN International. Through her powerful voice and works that have captivated readers across the globe, she has shown how storytelling can transcend borders. At a time when literature is called to confront war, the climate crisis, censorship, and disinformation, her presence in our leadership strengthens our mission both to defend freedom of expression and to imagine a more just and humane world.” Burhan Sonmez, PEN International President
03 September 2025: PEN International is delighted to announce the appointment of literary giant and Nobel Prize-winning Polish writer and activist Olga Tokarczuk as Vice President of PEN International.
Tokarczuk was appointed during PEN International’s 91st Congress, held under the banner “Freedom of Words – Words of the Free”, hosted in partnership with Polish PEN Club in Kraków, Poland. She joins an esteemed group of Vice Presidents that includes Svetlana Alexievich, Margaret Atwood, Niels E. Barford, Terry Carlbom, J. M. Coetzee, Sook-Hee Chun, Lucina Kathmann, Kata Kulavkova, Eric Lax, Boris A. Novak, William Nygaard, Vida Ognjenovic, Orhan Pamuk, Elena Poniatowska, Nayantara Sahgal, Michael Scammell, and Eugene Schoulgin.
Olga Tokarczuk is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual. Widely regarded as one of the most acclaimed and influential authors of her generation in Poland, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature for “a narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.” Her works include Primeval and Other Times (1996), Flights (2007), Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (2009), and The Books of Jacob (2014), among many others.
Note to Editors:
To schedule an interview or for comments and media queries, please contact Sabrina Tucci, PEN International Communications and Campaigns Manager, [email protected]