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How do you campaign for change? Meant for PEN members and recent and long-time supporters, this handbook from @peninternational.bsky.social will help you refresh your approach to campaigning for the right to freedom of expression and supporting writers at risk: buff.ly/4ao46uQ

submitted 55 minutes ago • 1 comment

Do you live in a news desert? In the last few years, the rate of newspaper shutdowns and #investigativejournalism unit closures has exponentially increased in Canada. Allya Davidson speaks to how CBC's The Fifth Estate created a news deserts project to tackle the problem:

submitted 23 hours ago • 1 comment

UN Special Rapporteurs are calling for the immediate release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah 'given the arbitrary and unlawful nature of his detention and the deteriorating health of his mother'. #FreeAlaa www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Let's talk about #bookbans in Canadian schools and libraries 📚 Watch the replay of @cfetmu.bsky.social's discussion last night: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TO7...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Come out Toronto 📣 Join us for an afternoon of readings by professional journalists, screenwriters, playwrights and novelists, who will inspire, bring hope, and shed light on the complexities on life in exile. 📅 Sunday, March 30 at 2 p.m. 📍 Hirut Cafe, 2050 Danforth Ave., Toronto

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

We join @pencanada.bsky.social in expressing concern about the arrest and detention of Canadian writer Yves Engler. Read their full letter:

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

PEN International supports and endorses @PENCanada's letter to Montreal authorities, expressing concern over the charges against writer Yves Engler. The Canadian author was detained in on 20 February and is currently out on bail.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

PEN Canada has sent the following letter to the mayor and police chief of Montreal, setting out our concerns with the charges brought against Yves Engler, a Canadian writer:

submitted 6 days ago • 4 comments

Book challenges are on the rise around the globe — in Belarus, China, Hungary, Turkiye, and even in Canada. Although for Canadians #bookbans are perhaps most noticeable south of our border, the trend is creeping into our own communities and schools.

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

📣 TOMORROW: Censoring Books in Schools and Libraries: What does it mean for our future? With Ira Wells & @jameslturk.bsky.social. 📅 Feb. 26 @ 7 p.m. Co-sponsors: @cdnschoollibrary.bsky.social, @pencanada.bsky.social & more. 🔗 Zoom link & more info here: cfe.torontomu.ca/events/censo...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

PEN Canada is concerned that charges have been brought against Yves Engler, a Canadian writer, who has been detained by Montreal police since Thursday in connection with his publicly expressed opinions on the conflict in Gaza. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects Mr. Engler’s...

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

Not long now to nominate a freedom of expression champion! Tell us who you think should win Index on Censorship's Freedom of Expression Awards 2025 in the fields of arts, campaigning and journalism around the world. Nominate here: www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/01/nomi...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

We asked five Syrian and Arab writers living in Canada to reflect on the fall of the regime just two months ago. This is what they hope for the country's future: https://buff.ly/415hMqh

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

On #InternationalMotherLanguageDay, we stand with #AndrzejPoczobut, jailed for nearly three years for defending linguistic and cultural rights in Belarus. Denied medical care and held in solitary confinement—we demand his freedom today. Take action: www.pen-international.org/news/interna...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Calling all Can Lit fans 📚✨ Next week, join us for an evening with Zalika Reid-Benta as she discusses her debut novel, River Mumma, and her award-winning story collection, Frying Plantain. 📅 Thursday, February 27 ⏰ 6:00 p.m. 📍 William Doo Auditorium, New College, 45 Willcocks Street, #Toronto

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

On #InternationalMotherLanguageDay, the Translation & Linguistic Rights Committee spotlights poets in Indigenous & minoritised languages from across the world. Watch Dafina Savic perform "Ol rom si sar syia aver" in Romani - Kalderash: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9Zs...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Action needed: Today, the global PEN community is joining together in support of #AndrzejPoczobut, a writer, journalist and minority activist who is imprisoned in #Belarus. You can help by making an appeal to Belarusian authorities, or writing a letter of #solidarity to Poczubut.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

#OPT: We condemn the arrest of Palestinian author Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad Muna, owners of Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop. We call for their immediate release amid the ongoing crackdown on Palestinian voices. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Are you seeing book bans in Canada? Last year, novelist Lawrence Hill learned The Book of Negroes had been banned from classrooms by the London District Catholic School Board because of its use of the N-word.

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

Celebrate #FreedomtoReadWeek with a thought-provoking discussion on censorship and book banning. 📅 Wednesday, Feb 26 Ira Wells and James Turk will discuss how censorship has become both popular and pervasive in today's world, and what the consequences are for human development, art, and democracy.

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

Tala Motazedi, a queer screenwriter from Iran, has had a very busy year as the PEN Writer-in-Residence at George Brown College. Now halfway through her George Brown College residency, PEN caught up with the screenwriter and playwright. /🧵

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

#Türkiye: PEN member Pınar Selek stands trial again in Istanbul tomorrow. Selek has been persecuted by the authorities for 26 years – half her life. Her politically motivated ordeal must end once and for all www.pen-international.org/news/trkiye-...

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

"Reports of appalling treatment of imprisoned writer #YangHengjun are deeply painful, highlighting the Chinese authorities’ failure to provide adequate medical care for those detained on politically motivated grounds," says Ma Thida, Chair of PEN Int.’s Writers in Prison Committee.

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

Join in on this conversation between two authors: Lawrence Hill and @debthompsonphd.bsky.social. TONIGHT, at 7 pm EST, we'll be in this Zoom: torontomu.zoom.us/j/91941276567

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

When Canadian novelist Lawrence Hill learned his award-winning The Book of Negroes had been banned from classrooms by the London District Catholic School Board because of its use of the N-word, he was deeply troubled.

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

PEN International and @englishpen.bsky.social have joined Laila Soueif on the ground, as she reaches day 129 of her hunger strike. She is protesting the unlawful detention of her son, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who continues to be held in #Egypt. We at PEN call for Egyptian authorities to #FreeAlaa.

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

Since @pencanada.bsky.social followed me here today I thought I’d post a photo of the time I was working the Pen booth at Word on the Street signing up new members a few years ago. Give them a follow.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments