[This media coverage page is almost entirely in German available. The views expressed in any interview, signed article, or open letter endorsed by individual board members do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire board of PEN Berlin.]
Thea Dorn, Congress, Sansal, Prison, Bundestag Resolution, Boycott (November 2024)
On the Arrest of Boualem Sansal in Algeria
Börsenblatt, Report, November 25, 2024: “PEN Berlin demands the immediate release of Boualem Sansal. Thea Dorn, spokesperson for PEN Berlin, stated: ‘Boualem Sansal is one of the most important voices in French-language literature. His passionate public warnings about political Islam do not justify his arrest, nor do the accusations now leveled against him. (…) Freedom of expression includes the right to voice opinions that others may find provocative. A state’s legitimacy is not undermined by public criticism but by the actions of those in power. Algeria’s freedom is the freedom of our colleague Boualem Sansal!'” LINK
3Sat, Kulturzeit, Oliver Heuchert in conversation with Thea Dorn, November 25, 2024: “[Sansal] wanted to resist in Algeria, so he didn’t go to France, though he could have lived there in exile long ago. He always said, ‘Algeria is my country, my home. I want to fight for better conditions in Algeria, and I can only do that on the ground.’ In this, he is somewhat like Alexei Navalny. We all know what happened to Navalny; he did not survive. One can only urgently hope that Sansal does not suffer the same fate.” LINK
NDR Kultur, Report by Stefan Ehlert and Helgard Füchsel, November 25, 2024: “The arrest has caused outrage in Europe. French President Macron stated he is closely monitoring the case. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office expressed serious concern about the detention of Peace Prize laureate Boualem Sansal. Both the German PEN Center and PEN Berlin have protested his arrest.” LINK
Börsenverein’s Call for Boualem Sansal, Perlentaucher, November 27, 2024: “Boualem Sansal, Peace Prize laureate of the German Book Trade (2011), faces years of imprisonment for expressing opinions about Algerian history. Sansal is an Algerian and French citizen, thus a European. We, German and international writers, journalists, and representatives of cultural organizations, stand in solidarity with Boualem Sansal. We demand his immediate release! We support Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s efforts to shed light on Sansal’s situation.” LINK
Welt, Commentary by Marc Reichwein, December 4, 2024: “Germany’s two PEN organizations—PEN Berlin and PEN Center Germany in Darmstadt—have spoken out (…) Boualem Sansal was also a topic at a special event at the Leipzig Literary House. Sansal’s German translator Regina Keil-Sagawe, literature professor Alfonso de Toro, and Iraqi writer Najem Wali (head of the German PEN Center’s Writers-in-Prison program) discussed the case and placed Sansal’s work in the political context of the Maghreb. (…) In the audience Q&A, a question arose about Sansal’s political stance, with claims that he appears on right-wing French media and is celebrated by Le Pen’s supporters. This insinuation that Sansal somehow provoked his arrest was firmly countered. PEN representative Najem Wali stated: Whether a writer is right- or left-wing, diplomatic or not, they must be free to express themselves. Applause from the audience.” LINK
On the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer
WDR 3, Resonanzen, Interview with Sophie Sumburane, November 15, 2024: “The core mission of PEN centers, including us at PEN Berlin, is what we do with passion but is rarely visible to the public: The first fellow we brought to Germany as PEN Berlin was Meral Simsek, a Kurdish-Turkish author who experienced horrific circumstances and imprisonment in her home country. She now lives in Germany with her children. These successes give us the strength to keep going, even when we lack resources and funding. (…) Recently, we also helped an author who had lived underground in Istanbul for a long time come to Germany. These people can now hopefully work in safety.” LINK and AUDIO
radio 3, radio 3 am Morgen, Interview with Sophie Sumburane, November 15, 2024: “Literature does not claim to be true. By definition, literature is fiction, and it cannot be refuted because it does not claim to be fact. Literature does not agitate or preach; it simply exists. It tells possible worlds and perspectives, portraying characters in all their complexities and expressing the pain that many people living under a dictatorship and in climates of fear feel but cannot articulate themselves. (…) Through reading, literature can inspire the realization that other worlds are indeed possible. Dictators ultimately fear nothing more than independently thinking individuals.” AUDIO
On the Bundestag’s Antisemitism Resolution
Welt, Commentary by Deniz Yücel, November 11, 2024: “Ultimately, the resolution ignores those it claims to represent: The Bundestag, invoking the so-called IHRA definition, aims to combat antisemitism in academia and culture but refuses to acknowledge that Kenneth Stern, the principal author of the definition, emphasized it includes antisemitism related to Israel but is unsuitable as a basis for administrative decisions. A textbook case of moral rigorism: intellectually feeble but ostentatiously outraged. Even liberal voices that usually caution against the inflation and dilution of terms like ‘right-wing extremist’ or ‘racist’ cannot seem to get enough of this rigorism here. Likely, the first administrative court will overturn measures based on this resolution – as predictable as the preliminary ruling on banning the far-right magazine Compact. But that’s cold comfort, as lawsuits can only challenge administrative actions. Events, exhibitions, lectures, awards, etc., canceled out of fear of sanctions cannot be contested.” LINK
Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall: “How Does Deniz Yücel Define Freedom?”
radio 3, radio 3 am Morgen, Interview with Deniz Yücel, November 8, 2024: “One thing I truly learned in prison: At PEN Berlin, we just held our third public congress last weekend, where the great musician Daniel Kahn concluded the event. He has a wonderful song called Freedom is a Verb. The same idea can be found in Sartre: Freedom is not something you possess but something you do. (…) There is a direct path from what I experienced in prison to what I do today: aside from my role as a journalist at Die Welt, I would never have become a spokesperson for a writers’ association without that experience.” LINK and AUDIO
On the PEN Berlin Congress “On We Go”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Keynote by Etgar Keret, translated, abridged, and slightly edited version, November 15, 2024: “On October 7, 2023, my first thought was of a question I had asked my father as a child, with the naivety of a six-year-old: Was the Holocaust the worst time in his life? It wasn’t a very tactful question. My father, who took all my questions seriously, paused for a moment and then said, ‘As I see it, there are no bad or good times. There are only difficult and easy times.’ He became silent and then added, ‘I must say that I’ve spent my whole life trying to avoid the difficult times. But looking back, those were the times when I learned the most about myself.’ Since October 7, this has stayed with me because it seems fitting. It demands something from us, calling us to action.” LINK [€]
NDR Kultur, Der Sonntag, Report by Jonas Kühlberg, November 3, 2024: “The PEN Berlin Congress was once again marked by the outgoing spokesperson Eva Menasse, who did not run for re-election after two and a half years and reflected on the organization’s achievements in her opening address. [Menasse:] ‘Because this association exists, the Turkish-Kurdish poet and novelist Meral Şimşek, the Afghan journalist Nassir Nadeem, and the Moroccan journalist Imad Stitou, among others, now live safely in Germany.’ The organization has become a cultural and political player, Menasse said of the three-year-old association. [Menasse:] ‘We set out to create a vibrant, vital, and controversial writers’ association in Germany, one that would lead the necessary political discussions and wouldn’t shy away from tackling contentious issues.’ You could also say it’s stirred up a lot of dust. For example, the discussion series “You Must Be Allowed to Say That,” when PEN Berlin toured East Germany during this year’s state elections, was described by some locals as a “pinnacle of debate culture.” [Menasse:] ‘(…) If people leave and say, ‘I’m glad this happened here,’ I consider that a success. And we’ve achieved that on a large scale.’” LINK and AUDIO
DLF Kultur, Lesart, Report by Stephanie von Oppen, November 4, 2024: “The PEN Berlin invited high-profile guests for this afternoon. (…) Eva Menasse, the outgoing spokesperson, emphasized in her opening and farewell address that the PEN Berlin unequivocally opposes boycotts and consistently upholds freedom of expression. When the PEN Berlin recently received yet another vague request to join a boycott against Israel, Menasse found it crucial to clarify once more: [Menasse:] ‘This new boycott call, which indiscriminately and vaguely targets Israeli cultural institutions, gives me the opportunity, as my tenure as spokesperson for this remarkable new organization ends, to reaffirm a few principles I deeply believe in. Chief among them is that cultural boycotts are always wrong, at all times, in all directions, and for all reasons.’” LINK and AUDIO
Süddeutsche Zeitung: “The congress’s provocative motto, ‘On We Go,’ was taken up at the end by keynote speaker Etgar Keret, the Israeli author whose invitation, despite the unresolved debates over the Middle East conflict, sparked no controversy—unlike last year’s speaker, A. L. Kennedy. (…) Keret performed the incredible feat of delivering an improvised speech about ‘moving forward’ in Israel after October 7, reflecting on the desperate state between shock, readiness for defense, and rejection of violence and the government that employs it, with intelligent humor.” LINK [€]
Freitag, Report by Katharina Schmitz, November 6, 2024: “‘How We Move Forward’ was the tightly packed theme of this congress. In her opening speech, Eva Menasse noted that the hardest challenge is standing against one’s own group. This difficulty became apparent in the first session, which addressed inner censorship in writing. Swiss author Alain Claude Sulzer described having to justify the use of the word ‘Gypsy’ in his manuscript to qualify for literary funding—a major scandal in Switzerland at the time, but on the panel it was resolved as a misunderstanding. It left one wishing to join the discussion.” LINK [€]
General Assembly, Thea Dorn, new Spokesperson, new Board
epd, Report, also published by Tagesspiegel, November 2, 2024: “The writers’ association PEN Berlin elected a new board during a membership meeting in Hamburg. The organization confirmed journalist Deniz Yücel as a spokesperson. The members elected author Thea Dorn as the new co-spokesperson, replacing Eva Menasse, who had held the position since PEN Berlin’s founding in 2022 but did not stand for re-election. The association also welcomed 99 new members, including bestselling author Frank Schätzing (The Swarm), German Book Prize winner Martina Hefter (Hey, guten Morgen, wie geht es Dir?), sociologist Steffen Mau, musician Sebastian Krumbiegel (Die Prinzen), and actor Ulrich Matthes.” LINK
Börsenblatt, Report, November 4, 2024: “Yücel and Dorn were elected with a clear majority, according to PEN Berlin. The organization’s board includes authors Dana Grigorcea (Zurich), Sophie Sumburane (Potsdam), and Joachim Helfer (Berlin), playwright Konstantin Küspert (Nuremberg), and translator Sandra Hetzl (Berlin). Newly joining the 11-member board are writer Tomer Dotan-Dreyfus, publisher Birgit Schmitz (both Berlin), poet Paul-Henri Campbell (Vienna), and author-lawyer Andrea Landfried (Heidelberg). ‘PEN Berlin may have been a quick birth, but it was not born out of defiance. It stemmed from a sincere wish to create a contemporary and productively disputatious writers’ association. The last two and a half years have proven this effort successful,’ said Thea Dorn, who has been a member since the organization’s inception.” LINK
Literature Boycott Calls Against Israel
Berliner Zeitung, Report by Cornelia Geißler, October 30, 2024: “On Monday, yet another boycott call against Israel was published, this time with over 1,000 signatures. (…) Among the prominent names were Nobel laureates Annie Ernaux and Abdulrazak Gurnah, as well as authors translated into German like Percival Everett, Mary Gaitskill, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ben Lerner, Arundhati Roy, Jonathan Lethem, and Ocean Vuong. (…) PEN Berlin spokesperson Eva Menasse responded: ‘We oppose cultural boycotts in all forms and directions. We are delighted to host Israeli writer Etgar Keret as the keynote speaker of this year’s PEN Berlin Congress in Hamburg this Saturday.’ Last year, PEN Berlin also rejected calls to disinvite keynote speaker A.L. Kennedy due to her BDS affiliation. Deniz Yücel, opening the congress in 2023, reiterated: ‘PEN Berlin rejects BDS.'” LINK [€]