Presse release of Dezember 1, 2024
Iran: Toomaj Salehi free at last!
Excellent news: Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, an honorary member of PEN Berlin, has finally been released from prison after 753 days! The news channel Iran International reported. At the »On we go« congress in November 2024, Alexandru Bulucz said on behalf of PEN Berlin: »We appeal to the German authorities to use all possible diplomatic channels to get Toomaj Salehi out of the country, to a safe place where no one has to apologise for wishing a fundamentalist, unjust regime to hell.« MEHR
Presse release of November 25, 2024
Book: »Be Beside Me and See What Has Happened to Me«
The book »Be Beside Me and See What Has Happened to Me«, edited by The Poetry Project and PEN Berlin, is available for purchase from publisher Verbrecher Verlag and can be delivered anywhere as of today. In it, 32 poets write about their experiences while fleeing, how their relationship to their old homeland has changed, and how they, each and every one of them, want to arrive in Germany. The book is available in German as well as in the original languages: Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi and Ukrainian. MORE
Premiere I: Tuesday, 3 Dezember, 7 pm | Salon im FMP1 | Franz-Mehring-Platz 1 | Moderation: Alexandru Bulucz | Premiere II: Friday, 13 Dezember | 8 pm | Buchkönigin | Hobrechtstr. 65 | Moderation: Sandra Hetzl
Press release of November 24, 2024
Algeria: Freedom for Boualem Sansal!
Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2011, was arrested a few days ago at Algiers airport on his return from Paris. (…) »The legitimacy of a state is not undermined by public criticism, but only by the actions of those in power. Algeria’s freedom is our colleague Boualem Sansal’s freedom«, said Thea Dorn, spokesperson for PEN Berlin. MORE
Press release of November 1, 2024
Thea Dorn for Eva Menasse
PEN Berlin held its third general meeting in person on Friday. At the regular elections, journalist Deniz Yücel was confirmed in the role of spokesperson. Thea Dorn, writer and presenter for ZDF, was elected as new spokesperson. The writers Dana Grigorcea, Sophie Sumburane and Joachim Helfer, the playwright Konstantin Küspert and the translator Sandra Hetzl were confirmed in the association’s board. The new members of the eleven-member board are the writer Tomer Dotan-Dreyfus, the publisher Birgit Schmitz, the poet Paul-Henri Campbell and the author and lawyer Andrea Landfried.« MORE
Press release of October 22, 2024
PEN Berlin congress 2024: »On we go«
This year’s keynote speaker is Israeli writer Etgar Keret. He follows in the footsteps of last year’s speaker, the British writer A.L. Kennedy, and the US author, playwright and then-President of PEN America, Ayad Akhtar, who delivered the keynote address at the first PEN Berlin Congress in 2022. Other participants: Ivan Krastev, Fintan O’Toole, Eva Menasse, Daniel Morgenroth, Daniel Ris, Stella Nyanzi, Alain Sulzer, Dana Grigorcea, David Werdermann, Philipp Ruch, Daniel Kahn and others. MORE
Press release of October 1, 2024
Frankfurt Book Fair: Italy in the spotlight at PEN Berlin
In June, 34 prominent Italian writers (…) criticised the official programme of this year’s Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Italy, as well as the non-invitation of mafia expert and outspoken critic of the Meloni government, Roberto Saviano. In close cooperation with the signatories of this open letter, PEN Berlin has now organised just that: international meetings and discussions on current issues. Roberto Saviano will be with us twice. Paolo Giordano (…) will be coming to the Frankfurt Book Fair after all. MORE
Press release of September 24, 2024
Attack on Joe Chialo: There is nothing to discuss here
PEN Berlin is appalled by the attack on the home of the Berlin Senator for Culture. Following the physical and verbal assault on Joe Chialo at the opening of a cultural festival last week, this violation of his privacy marks a further escalation. Not only are these assaults unacceptable, but so is the accusation sprayed on the wall of the house in blood-red paint that Chialo supports ‘genocide. MORE
Press release of September 10, 2024
Seven years in jail for a novel?
The award-winning Turkish-Kurdish author Yavuz Ekinci will have to stand trial once again on 18 September in Istanbul. His novel »Dream Divided« was confiscated and banned in March 2023. According to the new charges, the book contains »terrorist propaganda«. Ekinci faces a seven-year jail term. (…) Sandra Hetzl, board member of PEN Berlin, commented: »This charge against one of Turkey’s best and most famous authors is a new, dramatic attempt to intimidate all those who wish to express themselves freely in Turkey.« MORE
Presse release of August 16, 2024
AfD, BDS, Iran: PEN Berlin beim ilb’24
In cooperation with the international literature festival berlin by PEN Berlin:
»What If We Were Wrong – What Can Help Against the AfD?« With: Katarina Barley, Petra Pau, Thomas de Maizière, Boris Palmer, Linda Teuteberg and Bettina Böttinger (host)
»The Boycott Dilemma – BDS, Strike Germany and no End«. With: Candice Breitz, Stefan Laurin, Per Leo, Peter Kuras and Stephanie von Oppen (host)
»Proteste, Poesie, and Digitale Revolt«. With: Mahtab Yaghma, Sareh (Zahra Sedighi Hamedani) and Tanja Dückers (host)
Press release of July 1, 2024
Major series of talks: 37 x in Eastern Germany
PEN Berlin is organising a series of talks in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg under the title »You Can’t Say Anything These Days – talks about democracy and freedom of expression«. There will be 37 events, from Annaberg to Perleberg, from Ilmenau to Zwickau.With 118 guests, including Pinar Atalay, Juli Zeh, Dirk Oschmann and Monika Maron. And always with the audience. MORE
Press release of June 25, 2024
Julian Assange: Finally, but
Finally – Julian Assange, the longest serving political prisoner in the Western world, is free and on his way home to Australia. PEN Berlin welcomes the release of its honorary member with great relief. After 15 years of injustice, the decision by the US Justice Department to return to the proper treatment of whistleblowers was years overdue. MORE
Press release of Mai 21, 2024
Panel Anti-Semitism in the cultural sector?
Since the Hamas attack on Israel, there has been repeated discourse in Germany that the cultural sector also has a significant anti-Semitism problem. Is this accurate? Where does legitimate criticism of Israeli policy end, where is anti-Semitism expressed? In the cultural sector, anti-Semitism and any form of hatred and discrimination must indeed be outlawed. Do decrees, bans and clauses really help here? Panel at Berlin Book Festival. 8 June, Bebelplatz. With: Berlin Senator for Cultur Joe Chialo, Sociologist Teresa Koloma Beck, PEN Berlin spokesperson Deniz Yücel and as host journalist Jens Balzer.
Press release of April 25, 2024
Free Toomaj Salehi!
Rapper Toomaj Salehi sentenced to death: PEN Berlin joins the call of Ye-One Rhie, a member of Bundestag who has taken on a »political sponsorship» for Salehi. »Mullahs of Iran, revoke the death penalty for Salehi and drop the charges! And finally stop torturing people. Grant freedom of expression. The more you try to brutally suppress the critical words of your citizens, the louder we hear them«, said PEN Berlin spokesperson Deniz Yücel. MORE
Press release of March 26, 2024
Julian Assange: No victory, just no defeat
‘»Julian Assange could not win today; for him it was only a matter of not losing – as so often in the past 13 years«, Menasse said. (…) PEN Berlin recalls that Julian Assange has been in prison for over 13 years because of the publications of WikiLeaks. However, no one has yet been brought to justice for the war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan exposed by WikiLeaks. MORE
Press release of March 24, 2024
PEN Berlin at the Leipzig Book Fair
On March 21, the writers Hannes Bajohr, Isabel Fargo Cole, and Valerie Fritsch will discuss AI and literature at the BKM booth, moderated by the writer Dana Grigorcea, a PEN Berlin board member. That same day, at the »Forum Offene Gesellschaft«, journalist Daniel-Dylan Böhmer will speak with Omri Boehm, philosopher and winner of the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding, on the question »How utopian is peace?«. On March 24, the panel »How the Right Speaks – The State Elections in the East and the AfD« will follow there, with Max Annas, Stephan Anpalagan, and Miku Sophie Kühmel, moderated by board member Sophie Sumburane. MORE
Press release of February 24, 2024
Protest Farmers, Farmers Protests
The smell of dung is in the air. For months, lines of tractors have been blocking motorways and city centers. The farmers’ anger at the government shows no sign of abating. It is no longer just the cut in their subsidies that has upset them. Now they want to impale the media on their pitchforks. But where do today’s farmers really stand, what problems do they have? Are they just a problem for the government or for all of us? With: Cem Özdemir (Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture) and the farmer-writers Karen Duve, Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker and Nataša Kramberger. Hosted by: Doris Akrap
Press release of February 20, 2024
Julian Assange: The Dreyfus of our century
It has all been said. Not just once, but a thousand times: in its treatment of the Wikileaks founder and journalist Julian Assange, the West is showing just how much its values are really worth in an emergency. Julian Assange, who has been in England’s Belmarsh high-security prison for four years without charge, who previously had to hide in the Embassy of Ecuador for seven years on Snowflakeed-up sex charges, who now faces 175 years in prison or the death penalty if extradited to the US – he is the Dreyfus of our century. MORE
Press release of February 18, 2024
No to cancellation, yes to conversation
PEN Berlin strongly criticises the disinvitation of the writer and columnist Ronya Othmann, our former board member, from the Karachi Literature Festival. The disinvitation was preceded by a social media campaign and an open letter with over 400 signatories accusing Othmann of »Zionist and Islamophobic positions«. It is irritating, even disturbing, that the signatories include many writers and intellectuals who would claim freedom of expression at any time. MORE
Press release of January 24, 2024
Never Again Is Now! Texts Against Antisemitism
After the readings in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Hamburg, PEN Berlin’s North Rhine–Westphalia (NRW) regional group, in cooperation with Literaturhaus Köln and the Cologne Society for Christian–Jewish Cooperation, is hosting a reading. Against silence. Against antisemitism. With readings by Alida Bremer, Katinka Buddenkotte, Christoph Danne, Peter Jamin, Andrea Karimé, PeterLicht, Ulrich Peltzer, Monika Rinck, Kathrin Röggla, Bastian Schneider, Daniela Seel and Ute Wegmann. 30 January, Literaturhaus Köln
Press release of January 7, 2024
We mourn the loss of Harry Oberländer
We mourn the loss of our founding member Harry Oberländer, who died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 73. We remember the poet, translator and literary mediator as a dedicated member who supported the new German PEN in word and deed with full conviction. MORE
Press release of January 4, 2024
Never Again Is Now! Texts Against Antisemitism
»Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem, it is our problem«, wrote Jean-Paul Sartre in 1946. Non-Jewish Germans, regardless of their origin, cannot remain oblivious to the fact that antisemitic violence is once again increasing rapidly in Germany. That’s why Kristine Bilkau, Isabel Bogdan, Simone Buchholz, Katharina Hagena, Gabriel Herlich, Viola Roggenkamp, Katrin Seddig and Jasmin Sohneman will read texts against antisemitism by Jean Améry, Hannah Arendt and others, Nicolai von Schweder-Schreiner will perform some songs by Daliah Lavi and others. 16 January, Library of the Hamburg University