About Swedish PEN
Swedish PEN’s commitment is to defend the freedom of expression. Our task is based on the premise that the written word should know no borders, neither political, nor national, nor religious. The members of PEN support PEN’s charter, which highlights our responsibility to combat lies, racism, and hatred between ethnic groups and social classes.
Swedish PEN is a non-political, non-governmental organisation of writers, journalists, librarians, publishers, and other literary workers, and constitutes one of the more than one hundred PEN Centres in the global network PEN International.
Above a photograph of one of the pens carved by the Ethiopian journalist Martha Kumsa for the then current chairperson of PEN Thomas von Vegesak during her nine years of imprisonment awaiting trial.
WHAT DOES SWEDISH PEN DO?
PEN supports imprisoned or persecuted writers. We highlight their situation in letters to government representatives. We contact decision makers and engage in public campaigns. In debates, lectures, events, and teacher training we spread knowledge and engagement in support offreedom of expression.. Via our international Internet forum PEN/Opptexts that have been censored in many countries still reach readers all over the world. The Tucholsky Prize was established in 1985, it is awarded to merited authors who, as a result of their literary work, are forced to live in exile or under threat in their own country. Aong the recipients are, Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasreen, Dawit Isaak and Gui Minhai.
The first Chairperson of Swedish PEN was poet Anders Österling.
history
Swedish PEN was founded in 1922 as one of the very first Centres of the PEN organization. The first chairperson was poet Anders Österling. Women writers, such as Elin Wägner and Marika Stiernstedt, were admitted as from year 1925. Up until WW2 the organisation was mainly a discussion club, but as from the late 1940s and forward the organisation came more to deal with issues regarding the freedom of speech and international solidarity.
Today Swedish PEN has more than +800 members and is an important and influential part of the PEN International network. Swedish PEN is managed by a board whose members work without financial compensation. The Chairperson is Jesper Bengtsson.
GET INVOLVED
Would you like to be involved in Swedish PEN? We need your support.
If you are a writer, journalist, publisher, librarian, or work in the field of literature, you are welcome to seek membership. Of course, there are many other ways of supporting our work, for example, by supporting us financially or by taking part in one or several of our campaigns.
