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Interviews

Interview

Transforming Hong Kong

Bao Pu runs the publishing house New Century Press in Hong Kong that has published several politically sensitive books. In Jojje Olsson’s interview Bao Pu describes a Hong Kong that once had a...
Text: Jojje Olsson June 13 2019
Interview

“We’re Living under a Systematic Censorship”

President Nicolás Maduro was recently sworn in for a new six-year term of office. No democratic country recognises him as the legitimate leader of the country, but that doesn’t stop the regime. The...
Text: Henrik Brandão Jönsson January 22 2019
Interview

One year with the PEN International Women’s Manifesto

The PEN International Women’s Manifesto is now a year old. It has during this year been circulated round the world. The important message has been welcomed by literature and publishing circles and has...
Text: Tanja Tuma November 29 2018
Interview

"Almost nobody seems to care"

In an interview, philosopher G. M. Tamás tells PEN/Opp why freedom of speech and democracy are in decline in his home country.
Text: Daniel Gustafsson March 13 2018
Interview

My.Kali: A Novel To Remember

Antonia Kreissl meets the writer Saleem Haddad in a conversion on identity, gender, sexuality and on how the novel can be a part of forming a queer, cosmopolitan identity.
Text: Antonia Kreissl December 18 2017
Interview

The Same Silence as Before

In Turkey on September 9 Ahmed Altan, writer, journalist and former chief editor, was detained along with his brother. In an interview by Alev Yaman made just before Altan’s detention Altan claims...
Text: Alev Yaman September 17 2016
Interview

Peace songs for Sudan

Month after month, the Sudanese musician Abazar Hamid submitted his peace and love songs to the government’s music monitoring committee which mostly censored and rejected them. Songs dealing with...
Text: Nicky Armstrong, Christopher Finnigan March 10 2016
Interview

Darkness over Mosul – about journalism and ISIS in Iraq

For Iraqi journalist and writer Nawzat Shamdin, the meaning of the word home has come to be redefined during the two years he has lived in Skien, Norway. For over a decade, through his work as a...
Text: Afrah Nasser March 10 2016
Interview

Refuge writers due to sexual orientation

For Somali writer Ahmed Mohamed, being gay and writing about it in a strongly homophobic environment became more and more dangerous. Finally, through ICORN, he managed to leave and become Skellefteå’s...
Text: Daniel Gustafsson March 10 2016
Interview

China’s great cannon and censorship

The recent alarm that Chinese hackers had penetrated several vital digital systems even among dissidents in other countries, such as for example Canada, shows that cyber war is becoming the norm. What...
TEXT: Maria Vanta July 08 2015
Interview

One afternoon in Bishkek

At the PEN International Congress in Kyrgyzstan, British journalist and writer Juliet Jacques gave a speech on the situation for transsexuals in Thatchers Great Britain, when “section 28”, a law...
Text: Juliet Jacques December 16 2014
Interview

Can you tell me more about your expectations for your country?

During the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2011, we followed the uprisings, demonstrations and optimism through the anti-government blogs of Afrah Nasser (Yemen) and Lina Ben Mhenni (Tunisia). Three years...
Text: Afrah Nasser, Lina Ben Mhenni September 10 2014

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