To mark World Press Freedom Day, we are excited to be teaming up with Take One Action! to host a screening and discussion of RADIO SILENCE – a powerful portrait of unstoppable Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui as she fights misinformation, corruption and violent threats to press freedom.

Join us at 7.00pm on Tuesday 6th April as we celebrate the publication of Declaration on Freedom for Writers and Readers. Featuring contributions from Sir Tom Devine and Jenni Calder, alongside published writers.

The 2021 Naomi Mitchison Lecture will focus on issues of women’s rights. Led by Scottish PEN’s Women’s Writers Committee, and featuring guest writer Jenny Lindsay.

On Thursday 10th December, Just Festival and Scottish PEN hosted a conversation with writers Leela Soma and David Manderson to mark Human Rights Day 2020. Watch a recording of the event below.

During Black History Month, we partnered with Scottish BAME Writers Network to launch the Scottish Black Writers Group. The next meeting of the group is set for Thursday 17th December and features writer Delia Jarrett-Macauley.

Just us and Glasgow Museums to commemorate Al-Mutanabbi with poetry readings inspired by his work

Wigtown Book Festival celebrates the power of the written word but Scottish PEN is deeply concerned about how unwarranted and suspicionless surveillance can undermine the ability of novelists, poets and playwrights to express themselves free from coercion or duress.

by Jenni Calder Scottish PEN’s annual International Women’s Day event, organised jointly with the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities, is always stimulating and enjoyable. This year’s, which took place on 6 March, was a feast of the unexpected, the challenging and the entertaining. Our six writers lead us into […]