Scottish PEN is a signatory to this statement from PEN International, and asks our members to consider signing.

Scottish PEN is greatly distressed by reports emerging from Palestine, via the Coalition For Women In Journalism, that the shrine honouring the late Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akieh was demolished during the attacks on Jenin in the West Bank on 27th October.

The Naomi Mitchison Memorial Lecture is hosted annually by Scottish PEN and the Edwin Morgan Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. This year Hannah Lavery speaks on the subject of ‘Imagination as activism’

Scottish PEN is extremely alarmed by reports of recent events in Scotland. On 18 October, The National reported that the Scottish author, human rights campaigner and former diplomat Craig Murray had been detained by members of Police Scotland’s Border Policing Command unit under the UK’s draconian anti-terror laws.