PEN/Opp
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PEN/Opp is an international online magazine founded by Swedish PEN in 2011. The magazine serves as a forum for people to tell stories that relate to the pervasive and explosive struggle for the freedom of expression. By publishing writers and journalists who are not allowed to publish in their home countries, PEN/Opp wants to retrieve the democratic head start and to function as a worldwide link between readers, writers, and media. Over the years, we have made accessible texts that have been censored or confiscated, texts that have disturbed those in power or been smuggled out of prisons, and texts that due to self-censorship have even struggled to be imagined. By publishing the texts that those in power want to silence, we want to continue to resist the attack on the freedom of expression that is currently shaping much of the political climate in the world.
To date PEN/Opp has published texts by three hundred and twenty writers from fifty-five countries. Because we publish texts in their original language, as well as in English and Swedish—we now have readers in approximately one hundred and fifty countries. Source
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| Scope | International |
|---|---|
| Language | Swedish |
| Country | Sweden |
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Jag var en mottaglig skolpojke när jag växte upp på nittiotalet, i en tid då min generation sveptes med av en kraftig vurm för allt belarusiskt. För många av oss var det helt naturligt att det skulle pratas belarusiska överallt, att vi skulle omges av belarusisk kultur.
Tomorrow Club: Connecting Young Voices Over a Shared Future
A century ago, Catherine Amy Dawson Scott initiated a gathering where aspiring writers could network with established authors. The gatherings resulted in a network called the “Tomorrow Club”. The Tomorrow Club network became the building block of what was later recoined and founded as PEN International.
The non-Russian Russia: the Decolonial Literatures
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 fundamentally changed the image and view of Ukraine here in the West. It almost seemed like we had been unable to make out the country’s outline until Russian troops rolled in across the border and missile attacks pointed out its cities to us one by one: here is Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv. Here Odesa, Kramatorsk, Mariupol. Here was Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Avdiivka.
Poems by Farhad Shakely
The poet Farhad Shakely (1951) was born in the province of Kirkuk, in southern Kurdistan. Shakely was an active opponent of Saddam Hussein's regime. He joined the Kurdish liberation movement as Peshmarga in 1974-75. In 1975 he left Iraq to later end up in Sweden. His poetry has been translated into several languages, including Arabic, Persian, English and Italian.
The Role of Exile in the Development of Modern Kurdish Literature
Firat Ceweri is the guest editor of this issue number "I see you in a glowing amber", a line from Kurdish poet Farhad Shakely's poem "Send an ember, one night, to see in my dreams". He provides an introduction to the development of modern Kurdish literature where exile, in the absence of a Kurdish state, came to play a decisive role in the survival of Kurdish literature. Firat Ceweri was born in the Kurdish part of Turkey.
To defend one language means that one defends all languages
After the military coup of 1980 in Turkey, PEN International sent its former president Arthur Miller and Harold Pinter as delegates to the country in order to bear witness to the oppression and to support the intellectuals. The contacts and interactions that were established yielded many results. Among other things, Pinter wrote the play Mountain Language after his return to the UK.
A message from Sanandaj
I want to tell you how it feels to be part of this revolution. It is hard though to put my feelings into words. We have demonstrated in protest of the regime several times before, for example three years ago when the government arrested and killed many demonstrators, but this time it is different. To protest is a human right that we do not have so by protesting people here are putting their lives at stake. At earlier demonstrations I was younger and did not fully understand what was going on.
Den tjugotredje dagen
Vi ville ta på oss långkjolar gå i högklackade skor och föra tillbaka skönheten till gatan Men plötsligt förvandlades vi till träd som ingenting kunde hindra från att springa Skönheten var tillbaka på gatan med tusen ärr i ansiktet *** Det som är kvar är våra fötters smärtsamma avtryck på stranden den halvhjärtade kärleken vi bar på och ljudet av de förvirrade kulorna som bara slet sönder våra kamraters strupar Vi lämnade inte något land för något annat lands skull inget hav för något annat...
Love in the Time of War
“War is a drug,” he says. It’s already the third one for him. “And it’s unlike either of the previous ones.” He mentioned drugs when she asked him how people reach the same level of emotion, tension, and adrenaline after. In normal, post-war life, that is. It’s a rhetorical question about PTSD. He says he’s used to it from his past experiences and that he’d learned to enjoy life after it’s over. Those who haven’t served before have a harder time “melting” from the heat.