PEN Sydney - News

On 9 December join us for a special fundraising dinner in support of PEN Afghanistan. The evening will be an intimate gathering of the Afghan and Australian communities, celebrating freedom of expression and continuity of culture. We will feature the powerful voices of Afghan writers and poets here in Sydney. 

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Promient Turkish academic and human rights defender arrested after restrained comments around alleged use of chemical weapons by the Turkish armed forces in the Kurdistan Regiona of Iraq.

Join Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert to hear about her 804 days in an Iranian prison and her campaigning for better conditions and access to justice for political prisoners.

A statement from the 88th Congress of PEN International in Uppsala, Sweden  for the global day of action in support of #MahsaAmini #WomenLifeFreedom say her name loudly Mahsa (Zhina) Amini!

Comedian and journalist Sami Shah was once accused of blasphemy in Australia and was forced into hiding. On International Blasphemy Day, he asks why these laws are still on our books?

False accusations and a transfer to a prison far from his family - the pressure on Arash Ganji is mounting.

“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. Without the freedom to challenge, even to satirize all orthodoxies, it ceases to exist. Language and the imagination cannot be imprisoned, or art will die, and with it, a little of what makes us human.” Salman Rushdie.

The Farewell to Frank Moorhouse was held on the 13th of July 2022  at 2 pm at the State Library of NSW. In this moving ceremony Frank's broth...

The Kurdish PEN Centre held their annual congress in Oldenburg, Germany, this week.  They are not free to operate in their homeland because of the repression of writers and journalists by the various governments controlling Kurdistan.  PEN Sydney sent them a message of solidarity and support.

Philippine authorities have again ordered the shutdown of the investigative news site Rappler founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa.  It is one of the new Philippines media outlets critical of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte's government.

Catherine Lumby pays tribute to acclaimed writerFrank Moorhouse, a long time staunch supporter ofPEN and one of its Distinguished Writers, who died...

Frank Moorhouse will be missed for his great creative spirit, his passion and advocacy, humour, his sense of personal style and his generosity.

“Over the past half century and more, few writers in this country have mattered as much as Frank." Angelo Loukakis