Programmes
Free the Word 2011
The theme for PEN’s Free the Word! festival of world literature was Translating Power. It explored the power of literature to inform and transform. How can creative writers speak truth to power? Is there a role for literature in today’s rapidly changing world? Or is creative writing purely entertainment? Over five days in April 2011, some of today’s most exciting and intriguing writers from Britain and around the world came together to debate these issues that are key to the future of literature. As part of a worldwide community of festivals, with hubs in Austria, Turkey, and Galicia, the festival drew British writers and readers into a global conversation.
Events
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Past Event: Lunchtime Bites
Sun 10 Apr 2011
5:30pmFree Word Hall
Always a highlight of the festival, the literary lunch returns to offer a showcase of the best that Free the Word! has to offer. Enjoy lunch whilst you savour titbits from authors including Margie Orford, Dubravka Ugresic and Russia’s German Sadulaev as well as work from some of the bright new voices coming out of English PEN&rsquo…
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Past Event: Poetry and the State
Wed 6 Apr 2011
5:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
Some states encourage their poets, others simply ignore them; others imprison and murder them. The latest issue of Modern Poetry in Translation examines the complex relationship between poetry and the state. Does poetry over-privilege individual experience? Can the state ever allow the poet the true autonomy the poem demands? Join readers Stephen Watts, Sasha Dugdale, Martina Thomson, Chris Beckett and…