Quite recently PEN International upgraded their website , with a new structure and media centre, all the usual PEN links for those who wish read on issues of advocacy and freedom of speech are carried on the new site. The whole encompasses a variety of interests for our Irish PEN members, who will be interested in the work of our international affiliates across mutual areas of concern such as, The Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee, the Writers in Prisons Committee, the Women Writer’s Committee and Diversity. I am adding here the link to the PEN International landing page for our members and associates. http://www.pen-international.org/
The IPWWC , the International PEN Women Writer’s Committee.
“The Women Writers’ Committee was set up in 1991 to promote certain issues faced by women writers around the world – challenges at family and national levels such as unequal education, unequal access to resources and actual prohibition from writing.
The committee reaches out to both aspiring and practising women writers through PEN Centres and other organisations and networks, and works with the Writers in Prison Committee on behalf of incarcerated or endangered women writers.
Representatives from the committee attend meetings of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The committee has held conferences in countries such as Nepal, Kyrgyzstan and Senegal, and has published special newsletters. It uses Facebook to connect the work of women writers to the world. “
The Diversity Blog was launched on the 12/01/2012 and is encouraging women writers to contribute in creative areas ,like translation, poetry and literature. The information and contacts are carried at this link. More than ever social-media outlets like Facebook are contributing to new connections between women writers. PEN International is facilitating these contacts across a variety of platforms which include Websites, Facebook and Twitter. There are currently two discussion groups for members and associates of PEN available on the Facebook platform, the PEN International discussion group (231 members) and the PEN International group of writers sharing opinions and texts.
Members can choose to contribute to these above-mentioned groups , or to link up with their international colleagues through sites like Diversity. Irish PEN has a Facebook account where queries regarding social-media can be sent by direct-messaging, alternatively contacts can be addressed to the Irish PEN addresses, which I am linking below here.
Useful Irish PEN Contacts
Irish PEN Phone Number : 087 966 0770
Irish PEN Email Contact : info@irishpen.com