PEN Club
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| Motto | Poets, Essayists and Novelists |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1921 |
| Type | NGO |
| Purpose | Promote literature and defend freedom of expression worldwide. |
| Headquarters | London |
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Region served
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International |
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President
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Jennifer Clement |
| Website | www |
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous International PEN centers in over 100 countries.
Other goals included: to emphasise the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views.
It is the world's oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization.
The first PEN Club was founded in London in 1921 by Catherine Amy Dawson Scott, with John Galsworthy as its first President. Its first members included Joseph Conrad, Elizabeth Craig, George Bernard Shaw, and H.G. Wells.
PEN originally stood for "Poets, Essayists, Novelists," but now stands for "Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists," and includes writers of any form of literature, such as journalists and historians.
The club established the following aims:
Past presidents of PEN International have included Alberto Moravia, Heinrich Böll, Arthur Miller, Mario Vargas Llosa, Homero Aridjis, Jiří Gruša and John Ralston Saul. The current President is Jennifer Clement.
PEN International is headquartered in London and composed of autonomous PEN Centres in over 100 countries around the world, each of which are open to writers, journalists, translators, historians and others actively engaged in any branch of literature, regardless of nationality, race, colour, or religion.
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Wikipedia