Press release of September 28, 2023
Why the hell not: PEN Berlin now member of PEN International
PEN Berlin has officially become a member of the international PEN family! At this year’s General Assembly, held via videoconference from Tuesday to Thursday, PEN Berlin received the necessary two-thirds majority of votes cast. »We are thrilled«, said Eva Menasse. MORE
Press release of July 30, 2023
Cuts in cultural programs at public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk
The BR wants to cut formats like »kulturWelt«, »Diwan: Das Büchermagazin«, »Kulturjournal: Kritik Dialog Essay«, »Nachtstudio«, »radioTexte – die Lesungen«, as well as in-house radio dramas. The cuts affect seven hours of broadcasting time each week. Critics within the station say that »culture is becoming a niche product«. This was reported by the Münchner Abendzeitung. PEN Berlin strongly protests against this decision. MORE
Press release of June 21, 2023
Cultural and media associations condemn defamatory film series about Osman Kavala
Turkish-German Forum of Culture, PEN International, PEN Centre Germany, (aspiring) PEN Berlin, Academy of Science and Reporters without Borders are deeply concerned about the broadcast of a film series on the streaming service of the Turkish state broadcaster TRT, which shows a discrediting and disparaging portrayal of cultural promoter and intellectual Osman Kavala. MORE
Press release of June 20, 2023
Yavuz Ekinci arrived in Berlin
The well-known Turkish-Kurdish writer Yavuz Ekinci has been tried several times in Turkey for tweets and sentenced to 18 months probation; his novel »Dream Splinters« was recently banned and confiscated. Now he has arrived in Berlin. MORE
Press release of June 14, 2023
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija honored with Václav Havel Prize
PEN Berlin congratulates its newly elected member Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, who was awarded the “Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent” in Oslo today. The 35-year-old lawyer and writer is a celebrity in his native Uganda for his satirical novels. MORE
Press release of June 10, 2023
PEN Berlin celebrates first birthday
The new authors’ association PEN Berlin, founded after conflicts in the German PEN Centre (Darmstadt), turned one year old on 10 June. To mark its first birthday, the association held a digital general meeting and elected 85 new members, including Esther Kinsky, Gerd Koenen, Felicitas von Lovenberg, Harald Martenstein and Tien-Chi Martin Liao. MORE
Press release of May 18, 2023
Turkey: Arrest warrant for Deniz Yücel
In the May hearing of the trial against the journalist and spokesperson of PEN Berlin, Deniz Yücel on charges of »insulting the president« and »openly degrading the Turkish state and the Turkish nation«, the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance ruled that a warrant for Yücel’s arrest should be issued. MORE
Press release of May 18, 2023
Georg Stefan Troller: Honorary member of PEN Berlin
Georg Stefan Troller turns 102 this year. We are extremely pleased to welcome him as an honorary member of PEN Berlin. MORE
Press release of May 14, 2023
We mourn the death of Sibylle Lewitscharoff
On Saturday, May 13, Sibylle Lewitscharoff, our esteemed colleague, Büchner Prize winner and founding member of PEN Berlin, died in Berlin after a long illness. She was an outstanding, immensely original, stupendously educated writer and artist, and an exemplary strong, free person. MORE
Press release of May 10, 2023
90 Years of Nazi book burnings
These days we are remembering the National Socialist book burnings that took place all over Germany ninety years ago in May. But if commemoration is not to degenerate into an empty formula, then we today must try to understand history: to recognize the differences, but also related tendencies. MORE
Press release of May 5, 2023
Solidarity with Yevgenia Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk
Yesterday, Moscow director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk were arrested. Berkovich is a central figure in the alternative and resistant literary scene in Moscow and Russia. She has chosen not to go into exile and to fight for a democratic Russia, this is the reason why she is being harassed under unjustified allegations. MORE
Press release of April 17, 2023
Second aid delivery of the »Fire trucks for Kharkiv« campaign
Last weekend our driver Christian handed over the second aid delivery of the campaign »Fire trucks for Kharkiv« in Lviv to Switlana from the »Lviv Volunteers«. This organization will further transport the goods to Kharkiv to Serhiy Zhadan. MORE
Press release of January 12, 2023
Solidarity with Marko Vidojković
PEN Berlin observes with great concern the increasingly violent radicalization of the Serbian public. Citizens critical of the government, writers, and journalists are put under massive pressure and receive death threats. In recent years, at least four well-known journalists have been murdered, but the crimes have never been solved. MORE
Press release of January 7, 2023
Fire trucks to Kharkiv – We have delivered
PEN Berlin spokesperson Deniz Yücel and co-initiator Liane Bednarz today handed over urgently needed supplies to our Ukrainian colleague, writer, musician, and German Peace Prize laureate Serhij Zhadan: Two IVECO fire-fighting trucks, each with a 20kVA generator, a trailer with twenty-eight 8kVA diesel generators, one 50kVA diesel generator, (…) MORE
Press release of December 16, 2022
Mullahs, don’t you dare!
Over 150 influential writers, artists, politicians, and citizens are calling for overturning the death penalty for two Iranian women who have been sentenced to death on charges of »corruption on Earth through the promotion of homosexuality«. Amid the executions of protestors in Iran, concern has been rising over the fate of Zahra Sedighi and Elham Choubdar. MORE | VIDEO
Press release of December 13, 2022
Mullahs, don’t you dare!
We call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to suspend the death penalty in Saman Yasin’s case and to drop the charges against Toomaj Salehi. »Enmity against God« and »corruption on earth« are charges for which people should no longer be allowed to die in the 21st century. MORE
Press release of December 5, 2022
Congress and general meeting
Introduced by Daniel Kehlmann, PEN America President Ayad Akhtar gave the keynote address at Festsaal Kreuzberg. Akhtar criticized that »a climate of digital intimidation« is spreading in the U.S. »and with it the fear of speaking freely or even thinking freely«. On the initiative of Ralf Bönt PEN Berlin has launched the donation campaign »Fire trucks for Kharkiv«. MORE
Press release of November 16, 2022
Congress: The Trick is to Keep talking
We promised – after our much-noticed foundation in June 2022, the association law is now followed by the content. MORE
Press release of November 14, 2022
Talking about Iran, talking with Chelsea Manning/span>
We would like to draw your attention to two events next week in Berlin:: Azadî in Progress. Revolution in Iran, LGBT+ and what the rest of the world can do. And: Readme. Talk with Chelsea Manning. MORE
Press release of October 14, 2022
Maybe not that bad: Program at the Frankfurt Book Fair
We would like to draw particular attention to the panel discussion with Omid Nouripour and Natalie Amiri, among others, as well as the discussion with Peace Prize winner Serhij Zhadan, Claudia Roth and Eva Menasse. MORE
Press release of September 18, 2022
PEN Berlin continues to grow rapidly – Meral Şimşek is member
The writers‘ association PEN Berlin, which was only founded in June, elected over ninety new colleagues at its first online meeting last Saturday and now has 463 members. The new members include the well-known writers Adriana Altaras, Jackie Thomae, Vea Kaiser,… MORE
Press release of September 7, 2022
An Evening for Julian Assange
»I have never seen a group of democratic states come together to deliberately isolate, demonise and disrespect a single individual for so long.« (UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, on Julian Assange). MORE
Press release of August 23, 2022
Russia: Natalia Sivokhina sentenced
Our colleague Natalia Sivokhina, director of the St. Petersburg PEN Center, was arrested on June 22, 2022 and taken to the police station. There she was opened to the charge of disparaging the Russian armed forces on social media. MORE
Press release of August 18, 2022
Words against Violence: An evening for Salman Rushdie
PEN Berlin and the Berliner Ensemble have organized a reading at short notice as a convalescent salute to Salman Rushdie, one of the greatest writers of our time. As a sign of resistance against fanaticism and violence. MORE
Press release of July 20, 2022
Turkey: Persecuted author Meral Şimşek
PEN Berlin is happy to welcome Turkish-Kurdish writer and poet Meral Şimşek to Germany. We would like to thank all the people and institutions who have assisted in this outcome, in particular Nancy Faeser and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Klaus Lederer and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture. MORE
Press release of June 24, 2022
Zimbabwe: Trial of Tsitsi Dangarembga
PEN-Berlin expresses its solidarity with its member Tsitsi Dangarembga. We call on the anti-corruption court in Harare (Zimbabwe) to immediately drop the case against the writer Dangarembga and the co-accused journalist Julie Barnes. MORE
Press release of June 17, 2022
UK: Extradition of Julian Assange
PEN Berlin is shocked by British Home Secretary Priti Patel’s decision to extradite Julian Assange to the US. We urge the German government to work for his immediate release, and to offer him political asylum. MORE
Press release of June 13, 2022
PEN Berlin founded. New: Wallraff, Sorokin, Bachér
On Friday, 10th of June 2022, PEN Berlin was legally founded as an association under German law in the Literaturhaus Berlin. Some 360 authors, translators and publicists joined the new association as founding members. MORE
Press release of June 7, 2022
PEN Berlin. We stand by our word
We want a new PEN. A contemporary and diverse PEN, that brings together writers and translators of all literary and journalistic genres writing in German or living in Germany. MORE