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Theme: Writers in exile

Editorial

Writers in exile

It is now ten years since Swedish PEN started its international online publication PEN/Opp, which up until 2019 was...

Editorial: Marit Kapla September 10 2021
Article

Story-7: Nights and Walls

Aslı Ceren Aslan was born in Istanbul in 1990 and graduated from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Department of Mathematics in 2014. Between 2014 and 2021, Aslan worked in various positions as a...

Aslı Ceren Aslan March 07 2024
Poetry

Icarus' dream

Wesam Almadani is a Palestinian writer, and human rights activist, who came to Norway as an ICORN writer. Almadani published two books – the novel The Body’s Schizophrenia (2020) and the poetry...

Text: Wesam Almadani  February 28 2024
Article

Russian Culture in Light of Refugees from Mariupol

In this nuanced literary essay, Putin opponent Dmitry Kuzmin tries to answer the question of whether all Russian culture is evil. He is a Ukrainian-to-Russian translator and editor-in-chief of the...

Text: Dmitry Kuzmin January 17 2023
Poetry

Selected Poems by Mizar Kemal

Mizar Kemal is an Iraqi poet and journalist. He is a guest writer in the Swedish city of Stockholm. These poems were translated in a workshop in the city of Umeå, north of Sweden, during the...

Poems: Mizar Kemal May 29 2022
Interview

Not my Egypt

Ahmed Naji is trying to understand the zeitgeist. In the 36 years of his life he has witnessed dictatorship, revolution, counter-revolution, military coup, jail and exile. Ahmed Naji’s story is unique...

Interview by Edgar Mannheimer February 19 2022
Fiction

Scabs on the soul

PenOpp publishes a chapter from the Turkish author Barbaros Altuğ's novel Spiritual Wounds, which was published in Turkish last year. The novel's main character Derin, a Turkish journalist who grew up...

Text: Barbaros Altuğ January 21 2022
Article

Return to the Nightmare

Dara Abdallah is a Syrian poet and writer, born in the city of Qamishli in 1990. He lives in Berlin since 2013, and studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Humboldt University. He...

Text: Dara Abdallah December 17 2021
Poetry

Poem by Hoda Khamosh

Hoda Khamosh is poet, media activist, and women’s rights activist from Afghanistan. She attended the Merci Poetry Festival in Gotenburg the 4 th of September through a recorded video. She read this...

Poem: Hoda Khamosh September 24 2021
Article

Crisis and Unrepresentability

PEN/Opp publishes “Crisis and unrepresentability” – a new written lecture by the Syrian author, thinker and the Tucholsky Prize winner Yassin Al-Haj Saleh. The lecture was previously presented in...

Text: Yassin Al-Haj Saleh September 10 2021

Theme: Trauma as an Exit to New Language

Editorial

Trauma as an Exit to New Language

Inga Gaile is the editor for this issue of PEN/Opp. She is a poet, author, and the president of PEN Latvia. The common theme in this issue is how trauma influences the arts and how trauma can be...

Text: Inga Gaile October 05 2023
Article

Editing Through the Looking Glass

Agra Lieģe Doležko is a publicist, journalist and an activist, who focuses on the topics of motherhood (both as an institution and her private experience), gender equality, sexual violence, and women...

Text: Agra Lieģe-Doležko November 29 2023
Article

What do trains and toilets have in common?

Baiba Baikovska is a Latvian stand-up comedian and writer. She works with people with disabilities through the organisation Agape Latvia and is a guest lecturer on disability issues.

Text: Baiba Baikovska November 16 2023
Article

Sarma and the Slut List

Inga Gaile is poet, author of seven poetry collections and fiction writer: five novels and one collection of short stories. She is president of PEN Latvia and organizer of women stand up group in Riga...

Text: Inga Gaile November 09 2023
Poetry

Poems by Ivars Šteinbergs

Ivars Šteinbergs is a poet, critic, and translator from Riga, Latvia. His second collection of poems Jaunība (Youth, 2022), published by Neputns, received the Annual Latvian Literature Award in 2023...

Ivars Šteinbergs November 02 2023
Fiction

Temple

Ilmārs Šlāpins is a philosopher, publicist, editor, world music DJ and writer. He has published ten books, including translations, non-fiction and poetry. Temple is an excerpt from an upcoming novel.

Text: Ilmārs Šlāpins October 19 2023
Article

A fight I might never win

Katrīna Rudzīte is a poet. She has published two poetry collections: Saulesizplūdums (Blur of the Sun) and Ērti pārnēsājami spārni (Comfortably Portable Wings, 2020). She writes essays and articles...

Text: Katrīna Rudzīte October 12 2023
Article

Succès de scandale

Santa Remere is a translator and publicist. She regularly writes literary and art critics for local magazines, mostly with a focus on cultures of young audiences and feminist topics. Occasionally, she...

Text: Santa Remere October 05 2023
Poetry

Three poems by Alesya Loseva

Aļesja Loseva is an author of Belarusian origin who was born in Latvia. The influence and temperament of the Latvian, Belarusian and Russian languages are intertwined in her poetic voice. In public...

Text: Aļesja Loseva October 05 2023

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