Category Archives: NEWS

Paola Ugaz and the judicial harassment of journalists in Peru

Award-winning Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz co-authored – with Pedro Salinas – a book entitled Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados (Half-Monks, Half Soldiers), in 2015. The book uncovers an alleged pattern of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse within the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Peruvian Catholic organisation. Paola Ugaz has since faced numerous lawsuits arising from her reporting.

Please read more and latest news about her here:

https://www.mediadefence.org/news/paola-ugaz/

‘Nothing Bad Has Ever Happened: Stories and Poems from Ukraine’: Reading and discussion with Victoria Amelina (Ukraine).

Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann, supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, presents the Ukrainian writer and Human Rights activist, Victoria Amelina. Victoria has accepted our invitation to present two literary events in Dublin in October 2022, as part of the Dublin Arts and Human Rights Festival. Victoria Amelina occasionally writes in English and her powerful essay on genocide and cultural memory, “Nothing Bad Has Ever Happened: a Tale of Two Genocides” was republished in the Irish Times earlier this year. “Homo Oblivious” was republished in the Dublin Review of Books in July.

On Thursday 20th October at 19:00, at the Smock Alley Theatre, Ms. Amelina, who is based in Kyiv, will discuss the role of artists and writers who chose to remain in Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion of February 24th of this year. She will also focus on the importance of preserving Ukrainian literature and culture, and will read from her own work. Her new project is entitled War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War.

Booking via the Smock Alley Theatre website: https://smockalley.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873629957

Victoria Amelina also writes for children. Her second  Dublin Arts and Human Rights Festival event is for Ukrainian children aged 4-10 and is held (in Ukrainian) in Pearse Street Library on the 22nd October at 14:00.

During this event, she tells stories from a writer’s life and teaches the children to draw characters from her latest book, Ten Ways for an Excavator to Save the World (Ееесторії екскаватора Еки).

Booking via Pearse Street Library Link to DAHRF programme: https://smashingtimes.ie/festivals/dublin-arts-and-human-rights-festival-2022/

Poetry Jukebox Curation “The Revolution is in the Heart”

 

“The Revolution is in the Heart”

We are delighted that our @poetryjukebox Curation “The Revolution is in the Heart” has gone live on https://soundcloud.com/user-815416158/sets/irishpen-imprisonedwriters

IWC Evolution Programme 2021

The Irish Writers Centre has announced a new Evolution Programme as part of their 30th Anniversary celebration. This Programme is a new strand of combined supports for professional writers, an opportunity for published writers resident on the island of Ireland to avail from a series of sustained supports, which are partly tailored to their specific needs. More information about this exciting opportunity here

More general information about the work of the Centre, courses on offer etc, here

Imprisoned Catalan Writers Pardoned

(From PEN International): 23 June 2021 – PEN International and PEN Català welcome the release of unjustly imprisoned Catalan writers and civil society leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, who were serving a nine-year prison sentence for sedition through participation in Catalonia’s independence referendum held on 1 October 2017. Sànchez and Cuixart were among nine jailed Catalan politicians and activists pardoned by the Spanish government yesterday. All remain banned from public office, with the pardons conditional to them not committing serious crimes over a given period of time.

READ MORE: https://pen-international.org/news/spain-imprisoned-catalan-writers-pardoned

In Memory of Lyra McKee

To remember Lyra McKee on the second anniversary of her murder and to celebrate the launch of the paperback edition of her thought-provoking book Lost, Found, Remembered, we have partnered with English PEN and Faber Members to bring about a film of readings and tributes to Lyra. The film will premiere on Faber’s YouTube channel at 7:00 p.m. on 28th April.

Italian Honour for Board member/Secretary Catherine Dunne

We are delighted to tell our members that the Ambassador of the Italian Republic in Dublin, His Excellency  Mr. Paolo Serpi, has announced that acclaimed Irish author Catherine Dunne has been honoured by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, with the decoration of “Cavaliere” in the Order “Stella d’Italia”. The prestigious title was given in recognition of Cavalieri Dunne’s leading role in Irish literature and her close ties with Italian Culture.

Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is delighted for – and very proud of – Catherine, who was a member of the Freedom to Write campaign before we joined and re-launched Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann. She is also a previous recipient of the Irish PEN Award for outstanding contribution to Irish Literature.