International Women’s Day Event – Embracing Equity
This free event will take place via Zoom at 7.00pm on 7th March 2023 and will feature readings by: Jo Clifford Ali Millar Wendy Miller Finola Scott Lolo Callery-Sithole Zöe Strachan Nuala Watt Empty...
View ArticlePENning magazine available online now
The January ‘Making’ edition of PENning magazine is available to read for free online, via Issuu. As always, contributions to the magazine were selected by the Writers in Exile Committee of Scottish...
View ArticleRemembering Leela Soma
The Board of Scottish PEN would like to share a tribute to colleague and friend, member and former Trustee, Leela Soma, who died earlier this year. On Friday 7th January 2023, David Manderson, a...
View ArticleLouise Welsh appointed Honorary President of Scottish PEN
The Board of Scottish PEN is delighted to announce that Louise Welsh has agreed to represent Scottish PEN in a new role as Honorary President. Louise has been a long-standing member of Scottish PEN...
View ArticleInternational Women’s Day Readings
On Tuesday 7th March 2023 our Women Writers Committee hosted an online event to mark International Women’s Day. We are pleased to share a selection of readings from the event here. The event featured...
View ArticleCarl MacDougall, former President of Scottish PEN: a tribute, by Dave Manderson
Carl MacDougall, who has died in Glasgow one day short of his 82nd birthday, was a novelist, television presenter, journalist, editor, reviewer, songwriter and a leading figure of late twentieth and...
View ArticleWorld Book Night event
Join Scottish PEN as we celebrate World Book Night at Mount Florida Books in Glasgow. This free event is hosted by Scottish PEN’s Writers at Risk Committee, and offers an opportunity for writers and...
View ArticleCarl MacDougall: My employer and friend
Scottish PEN’s Project Manager, Lisa Stewart, has written a tribute to former President and Trustee, Carl MacDougall. Carl MacDougall is best known as a writer of prize-winning novels, short story...
View ArticleInternational groups demand release of Kurdish journalists, lawyers,...
Media freedom, freedom of expression, and human rights organisations call on Turkish authorities to stop the systematic harassment and intimidation of Kurdish journalists, media workers, media...
View ArticleMalta: Free expression organisations call on the authorities to give full...
We, the undersigned free expression organisations and journalists’ organisations, are deeply concerned about the safety of Robert Aquilina, a writer, activist, and the President of the NGO,...
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Writers, Activists and Journalists in Malta: Robert Aqulina’s Pilatus: A...
A book review by Lizzie Eldridge, Chair of Scottish PEN’s Writers at Risk Committee Robert Aquilina is President of the Maltese NGO, Repubblika, a civil society movement set up in the wake of the...
View ArticleStatement on the singling out of literary events and writers
Scottish PEN notes with regret the development of an atmosphere in parts of the literary world in Scotland whereby writers and events are singled out to be the subject of attempts to encourage...
View ArticleJoint statement: Wikileaks founder and publisher Julian Assange close to...
We – PEN International and the undersigned PEN Centres – express our deepest concerns over the decision by the UK High Court to reject the appeal of Wikileaks founder and publisher Julian Assange...
View ArticleScottish PEN Statement on Israel’s Military Operation in Jenin
Scottish PEN joins the United Nations’ Secretary General in condemning the acts of violence perpetrated by Israeli armed forces upon the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank in early July....
View ArticleWater edition of PENning magazine out now
The Writers in Exile Committee of Scottish PEN is pleased to share the latest edition of PENning magazine, featuring poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction from Scottish and international writers....
View ArticleScottish PEN statement on questioning of Repubblika president Robert Aquilina
Scottish PEN is extremely alarmed by recent events taking place in Malta. On Tuesday, 3 October, Robert Aquilina, the President of the anti-corruption NGO Repubblika, was abruptly called in for police...
View ArticleBay Leaves and Butterflies: Marking the six-year anniversary of Daphne...
On the 16th of October 2016, at 2.35 in the afternoon, Daphne Caruana Galizia made her last ever blog post. She wrote, “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.” Less than...
View ArticleStatement on Detention of Author and Human Rights Campaigner, Craig Murray
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...
View Article2023 Naomi Mitchison Lecture with Hannah Lavery – 30th November
Image credit: Kat Gollock Imagination as activism If we want change, first we have to imagine it… Hannah Lavery is a leading Scottish poet, playwright and performer. Appointed as Edinburgh Makar in...
View ArticleStatement on the Desecration of the Shrine to Shireen Abu Akleh In Jenin
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...
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