English PEN


Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' association with 145 centres in more than 100 countries. The President of English PEN is Margaret Busby, succeeding Philippe Sands in April 2023. The Director is Daniel Gorman. The Chair is Ruth Borthwick.
English PEN celebrates the diversity of literature and envisions a world with free expression and equity of opportunity for all by supporting writers at risk and campaigning for freedom of expression nationally and internationally. English PEN also hosts events and prizes to champion international literature, showcase the diversity of writing, and celebrate literary courage. By supporting literature in translation into English and developing opportunities for publishers, translators and translated voices, English PEN aims to encourage diversity in the literary landscape.

History

English PEN was founded in London by novelist Catherine Amy Dawson Scott in 1921, with John Galsworthy as president, and May Sinclair, Radclyffe Hall, Vera Brittain, Bertrand Russell, E. M. Forster, W. B. Yeats, Joseph Conrad and H. G. Wells as founding members.
The acronym behind the P.E.N. Club, as it was then known, stood for: Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists. Dawson Scott envisioned a club that would connect writers worldwide to create a common meeting ground in every country for all writers.
Dawson Scott's hopes of establishing an international network of writers were swiftly realised. Within three years, there were 19 PEN clubs around the world. The first meeting of what would become the annual PEN Congress was held in London in May 1923, and was attended by representatives from 11 countries. With an ever-growing number of members worldwide, it became necessary to establish some guiding principles for the organisation, and the first version of the PEN Charter principles was passed at the 1927 Congress in Brussels.
In 1940, English PEN published its "Appeal to the Conscience of the World" letter, a plea for the protection of freedom of expression written by English PEN's first woman president, Storm Jameson, and co-signed by English writers including Vita Sackville-West, E. M. Forster, H. G. Wells, Vera Brittain, and Rebecca West.
Following World War II, English PEN played a significant role in the emerging discourse around human rights, and was the first organisation to frame freedom of expression as a necessary precondition to literary creation. PEN International gained advisory status to the United Nations and worked with UNESCO on various initiatives. It continued to expand with new centres opening across the world, and continued to fight for the rights of imprisoned writers, writers in exile, and censored writers.
English PEN celebrated its centenary in 2021. "Common Currency", the title of the centenary events, is taken from the PEN Charter: "Literature knows no frontiers and must remain a common currency among people in spite of political or national upheavals." The centenary programme included events, residencies and workshops online and across the UK, culminating with a three-day festival of free thinking at London's Southbank Centre in September 2021.
In December 2021, having served as a trustee of English PEN since 2019, Ruth Borthwick was named as its chair, taking over the position from Maureen Freely, with Aki Schilz as vice-chair, taking over from Claire Armitstead.

The PEN Charter

The PEN Charter has guided PEN members for over 60 years, since it was approved at the 1948 PEN Congress in Copenhagen. Like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the PEN Charter was forged amidst the harsh realities of World War II.
The Charter was amended at the 83rd PEN Congress in Lviv in 2017 for the first time since it was adopted 90 years earlier. The Assembly voted for a wider formulation, namely counteracting hate and not only based on race, class or nationality but also gender, religion and other categories of identity. Consequently, Article 3 of the Charter reads as follows: "PEN members should at all times use their impact for mutual understanding and respect between nations; they commit to do everything to dispel all types of hate and support the ideal of unified humanity living in peace."

Membership

English PEN is a membership organisation, with a community of more than 1,000 members including novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, human rights activists, and readers. English PEN membership is open to all who subscribe to the aims outlined in the PEN Charter.

Board of trustees

English PEN is governed by a board of trustees that is elected from and by members, and chaired by Ruth Borthwick, former chief executive and artistic director of the Arvon Foundation.
Current trustees include:
  • Aki Schilz, Director of The Literary Consultancy
  • Dan Miller, communications professional
  • Shazea Quraishi, poet, playwright and translator
  • Cathy Galvin, poet, journalist and editor
  • Georgina Godwin, broadcast journalist
  • Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre
  • Milena Büyüm, Senior Campaigner at Amnesty International
  • Guy Gunaratne, journalist, filmmaker and novelist
  • Can Yeğinsu, barrister and Deputy Chair of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom
  • Arifa Akbar, chief theatre critic for The Guardian
  • Joanna Stocks

    Past Presidents of English PEN

Memorial

A cast-iron sculpture entitled Witness, commissioned by English PEN to mark their 90th anniversary and created by Antony Gormley, stands outside the British Library in London. It depicts an empty chair, and is inspired by the symbol used for thirty years by English PEN to represent imprisoned writers around the world. The memorial was unveiled on 13 December 2011.

Prizes

English PEN runs three annual awards – the PEN Pinter Prize, the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize, and the PEN Heaney Prize. Until 2023 it also ran the PEN/Ackerley Prize. Funded by and in honour of former PEN members and significant literary figures, these prizes recognise excellence in historical nonfiction, literary autobiography, and a courageous and unflinching approach to the written word.

PEN Pinter Prize

Established in 2009 in memory of Nobel Laureate playwright Harold Pinter, the PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a writer from Britain, the Republic of Ireland, or the Commonwealth who, in the words of Harold Pinter's Nobel speech, casts an "unflinching, unswerving" gaze upon the world, and shows a "fierce intellectual determination... to define the real truth of our lives and our societies".
The prize is shared with an international writer of courage selected by the winner in association with English PEN's Writers at Risk programme.
Winners of the PEN Pinter Prize: Tony Harrison, Hanif Kureishi, Sir David Hare, Carol Ann Duffy, Tom Stoppard, Salman Rushdie, James Fenton, Margaret Atwood, Michael Longley, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lemn Sissay, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Malorie Blackman, Michael Rosen, and Arundhati Roy.
International Writers of Courage: "Zarganar" Maung Thura, Lydia Cacho, Roberto Saviano, Samar Yazbek, Iryna Khalip, Mazen Darwish, Raif Badawi, Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury , Mahvash Sabet, Waleed Abulkhair, Befeqadu Hailu, Amanuel Asrat, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, Abduljalil al-Singace, and Rahile Dawut.

PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize

The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize of £2,000 is awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content.
Past winners include: Anita Anand's The Patient Assassin, Edward Wilson-Lee's The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books, S. A. Smith's Russia in Revolution, David Olusoga's Black and British, Nicholas Stargardt's The German War, Jessie Child's God's Traitors, David Reynolds' The Long Shadow, Keith Lowe's Savage Continent, James Gleick's The Information, Toby Wilkinson's The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, Diarmaid MacCulloch's A History of Christianity, Mark Thompson's The White War, Clair Wills' That Neutral Island, Vic Gatrell's City of Laughter, Bryan Ward Perkins' The Fall of Rome, Paul Fussell's The Boys' Crusade, Richard Overy's The Dictators, Tom Holland's Rubicon, Jenny Uglow's The Lunar Men, and Margaret Macmillan's Peacemakers.

PEN Heaney Prize

The PEN Heaney Prize, launched in 2024, is run as a partnership between English PEN, Irish PEN and the estate of Seamus Heaney. The annual award of £5,000 is bestowed on a volume of poetry "of outstanding literary merit" which "engages with the impact of cultural or political events on human conditions or relationships."
The first winner of the PEN Heaney prize was Susannah Dickey's ISDAL.

PEN/Ackerley Prize

The Ackerley Prize is awarded in J. R. Ackerley's memory for a literary autobiography of excellence. The prize is judged by the trustees of the J. R. Ackerley Trust.
Past winners include: Alison Light's A Radical Romance, Yrsa Daley-Ward's The Terrible, Richard Beard's The Day That Went Missing, Amy Liptrot's The Outrun, Alice Jolly's Dead Babies and Seaside Towns, Henry Marsh's Do No Harm, Sonali Deraniyagala's The Wave, Richard Holloway's Leaving Alexandria, Duncan Fallowell's How To Disappear, Michael Frayn's My Father's Fortune, Gabriel Weston's Direct Red, Julia Blackburn's The Three of Us, Miranda Seymour's In My Father's House, Brian Thompson's Keeping Mum, Alan Bennett's Untold Stories, Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy's Half an Arch, Bryan Magee's Clouds of Glory, Jenny Diski's Stranger on a Train, Michael Foss' Out of India, Lorna Sage's Bad Blood, Mark Frankland's Child Of My Time, Margaret Forster's Precious Lives, Katrin Fitzherbet's True To Both My Selves, Tim Lott's The Scent of Dried Roses, Eric Lomax's The Railway Man, Paul Vaughan's Something in Linoleum, Blake Morrison's And When Did You Last See Your Father?, Barry Humphries' More Please, John Osborne's Almost a Gentleman, Paul Binding's St Martin's Ride, Germaine Greer's Daddy, We Hardly Knew You, John Healy's The Grass Arena, Anthony Burgess' Little Wilson and Big God, Diana Athill After a Funeral, Dan Jacobson's Time and Time Again, Angelica Garnett's Deceived with Kindness, Richard Cobb's Still Life, Kathleen Dayus' Her People, Ted Walker's High Path, and Edward Blishen's Shaky Relations.