English PEN announces the six shortlisted titles for the PEN Heaney Prize 2025

Sabrina Mahfouz’s 2025 PEN Pinter Prize encomium.

Stella Gaitano was declared the winner of the PEN English Pinter Prize for Writer of Courage 2025 on in London, UK, on October 10, 2025.

17 September 2025 : Today at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Sebastien Lai addressed the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of PEN International, calling on the Hong Kon...

Em Dial on archives and invitations of silence.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s pardon is a major step forward and a huge relief, FairSquare said today after his lawyer reported that the President had issued a pardon for the British-Egyptian national. FairSqu...

Reports say writer, who has served six years for liking a Facebook post, has also been given a presidential pardon

“At this 91st Congress we affirmed that freedom of expression cannot be atomized —whether in defending peace against authoritarianism, protecting our planet, standing with trans and gender-diverse peo...

“At this Congress in Kraków we saw the importance of our shared mission. Writers from across the world came together to defend freedom of expression, to stand with those silenced by war, censorship, a...

21 August 2025: Today, PEN International and PEN Centres joined a coalition of 72 freedom of expression and human rights organisations in a letter to the UK’s Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer, urging ...

Treating the media as a battlefield, a secretive intelligence squad scoured Gaza for material to bolster Israeli hasbara — including questionable claims that would justify the killing of Palestinian r...

“We mourn and condemn the killing of five Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including prominent correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh. These were civilians, protected under international l...

Eno is executive producing “a night of music, reflection and hope” at Wembley Arena, with a lineup to be announced

Huda Ammori argued that home secretary’s decision to proscribe group under terrorism laws was ‘abuse of power’ The co-founder of Palestine Action can bring a legal challenge to the home secretary’s decision to ban the direct action group under anti-terrorism laws, a high court judge has ruled. Lawyers for Huda Ammori argued at a hearing in London last week that the proscription of Palestine Action, placing it on a par with groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, was “repugnant” and an “authoritarian and blatant abuse of power”. Continue reading...

Volker Turk urges the UK government to lift the "unnecessary" ban on the group.

Awarding 14 titles from 10 publishers, 13 languages and 11 regions.

On International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners in Belarus, Nobel Laureate Ales Bialiatski on letters, solidarity, and compassion. Translated by Valzhyna Mort.