Toni Jordan and Arnold Zable were guest speakers at the session ‘Books Change Lives, Don’t They’, an event sponsored by the Melbourne PEN Centre to honour the 50th Anniversary of the Writers in Prison Program of International PEN. Both Toni and Arnold spoke of a number of books that had personally influenced them – Toni [...]
The Melbourne Writers Festival, in association with the Sydney Writers’ Festival, presents: John Ralston Saul Freedom and Globalisation An event in support of the Melbourne PEN Centre Sunday 23 May, 7pm, RMIT Capitol Theatre, Melbourne John Ralston Saul is a long-time champion of freedom of expression and was elected President of International PEN in October [...]
A wonderful weekend event of Writers’ and Publishers’ Talks at Clunes http://www.booktown.clunes.org/writers.htm including a Melbourne PEN event on Saturday, May 1, 12.30 – 1.30pm Books Change Lives, Don’t They? Toni Jordan and Arnold Zable Join award-winning authors and members of Melbourne PEN talking about books that have changed their lives. Chaired by Anthony Lawrence Sponsored [...]
Melbourne PEN declares its concern that Robert Dessaix, an acclaimed writer funded to attend the Shanghai International Literary Festival as one of a delegation of Australian writers, has been refused a Chinese visa. The grounds are said to be his HIV-positive status, frankly declared on the understanding that there was not an objection. However, it [...]
For its first event of 2010, Melbourne PEN celebrates the work of women writers in dangerous places. Featuring readings from works by: Taslima Nasrin (Bangladesh) Lydia Cacio (Mexico) Philo Ikonya (Kenya) Odgeroo Noonuccal (Australia) Irina Ratushinskaya (Russia) Read by Kate Holden, Paddy O’Reilly, Toni Jordan, Judith Rodriguez Introduction by Cynthia Troup. While the event is [...]
We are very pleased to announce that Melbourne PEN Honorary Member Wajeha Al-Huwaider has received the inaugural MEMRI Martin Lurther King Jnr Reformist Award. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) will from this year recognise a reformist in the Arab world whose efforts to advance the rights of people in their societies embody the [...]
We are very sad to learn that Haitian PEN President Georges Anglade and his wife Mireille Neptune have been killed in the earthquake in Haiti. The Haitian Centre is one of the newest in PEN and we were delighted that a centre had been formed in one of the world’s poorest and harshest countries. Both [...]
The first PEN committee meeting of 2010 will be in the Board Room of the new Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas at the State Library of Victoria at 7.30pm on Tuesday 9 February 2010. All welcome but PLEASE BE PROMPT AS SOMEONE WILL HAVE TO LET YOU IN TO THE CENTRE. Entry to [...]
The first event for 2010 will be ‘Women Writers – Double Jeopardy’ also at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas at the State Library of Victoria. It will be held between 2 and 3 pm on Sunday, 14 March 2010. Celebrating women writers who are living and working under threat. The event will [...]
President Arnold Zable begins his final editorial of 2009 with this exciting news ‘To begin at the end, this afternoon I was shown around the new Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas at the State Library. The centre is still being renovated, but some of the key players have moved in. They include the directors [...]