Burma

From English Pen:

FREEDOM WRIT LARGE

Stand in solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi and the writers of Burma
English PEN event Thursday 25 October, 7pm

We have watched aghast while the Burmese people have courageously demonstrated against repression and suffered the brutal consequences. New arrests are made every day, and the true number of the detained and disappeared remains unknown. The Myanmar authorities are withholding information about the location of these political prisoners, as well as the charges and conditions they are facing.

PEN knows of at least six journalists and poets who were arrested as a result of organising or reporting the protests. They join a large number of writers who have been imprisoned, harassed and persecuted for decades, many of whom continue, despite the odds, to smuggle out their pro-democracy opinions – including poetry expressing their personal concern for one another. It is time to stand in solidarity with them and support their right to freedom of expression.

On Thursday 25 October at 7pm English PEN is hosting an evening dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi and other writers who are voices of conscience in Burma. New English translations of their work will be read alongside their remarkable personal stories and previously unseen film footage of interviews with Burmese writers will be shown, including the last interview with the admired comedian and poet Zargana, filmed before he was arrested last month. The event will also be an opportunity to hear the views of Burmese exiles and some of Britain’s leading writers on the recent protests in Burma. It will close with the signing of an open letter of support to Aung San Suu Kyi.

Speakers and readers include:

John Pilger, journalist and human rights campaigner

Benedict Rogers, expert on Burma

Pascal Khoo Thwe, the acclaimed Burmese novelist

Justin Wintle, Aung San Suu Kyi’s most recent biographer

Maureen Lipman, long dedicated to the Burmese cause

Zoya Phan, Burma Campaign UK spokeswoman

Melissa Benn, novelist and journalist



All proceeds will go to support English PEN’s Writers in Prison Programme and to directly benefit Burmese writers now in exile or under threat.

Time: Thursday 25 October - 7pm
Venue: Guardian Newsroom, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA
Tickets: £10 members, £12.50 non-members

Tickets include a complimentary glass of wine after the talk, courtesy of Waitrose Wine

To book: Call 020 7713 0023 or book online.

Pen Event

Deathless Prose

Veronica Horwell, Martin Vander Weyer and Hugo Vickers
chaired by Jonathan Heawood

Tuesday 19 June, 7pm

The obituary is one of the most challenging of all forms of literature. It was not for nothing that Mark Twain complained that reports of his death had been exaggerated. Turning the chaos of life into a few succinct paragraphs that are at once respectful, illuminating and honest is a task beyond all but the hardiest writers. And who are obituaries for anyway - friends, family, or immortality? Obituarist Martin Vander Weyer, Business Editor of the Spectator, is joined by the royal biographer Hugo Vickers and columnist and obituarist Veronica Horwell to explore the darker corners of the newspaper pages.

Time: 7.00pm

Tickets: £5.00 PEN Members / £7.00 non-members (includes a glass of wine after the talk, courtesy of Waitrose Wines)

Venue: The Guardian Newsroom, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA

How to book: On-line at www.englishpen.org/events/ or call 020 7713 0023