#UK: We join @indexoncensorship.org and others in urging the UK government to ensure the BBC World Service has the funding it needs to continue its vital work across the globe. Read our joint letter 🔽 www.pen-international.org/news/open-le...
Join Scottish PEN for IWD event Woman of Courage and Endurance: Scottish-Gazan poet Nada Shawa, plus Uni-Ed Creative Writing students read the work of imprisoned international women writers and some of their own. MARCH 10th, 7pm, Edinburgh Futures Centre rm 2.55. Free tickets, tinyurl.com/5c7e5vcf
"In states that once focused mainly on health care and sports for transgender minors, debates now revolve around the validity of transgender identity."
Because it was never about sports.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...
Bypass here:
archive.ph/jUvSO
From tomorrow, we’ll share poems celebrating Indigenous and Minoritised languages worldwide as @pen-tlrc.bsky.social launches its 6th Video-Poem Marathon for International Mother Language Day.
Explore last year’s video-poems: www.pen-international.org/tlrc
#MotherLanguageDay #TLRCMarathon
30 Years of Creative Writing Festival
28 Feb & 1 March @glasgow.ac.uk – free
A 2-day festival of readings, workshops, panel discussions & activities celebrating the discipline of Creative Writing at Glasgow University, featuring alumni, current students & staff
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/30-years-o...
A devastating report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, finding that the 18-month starvation siege & subsequent atrocities during the fall of El-Fasher genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
www.ohchr.org/sites/defaul...
I wish it were true that "no one is above the law". But while the City of London acts as laundromat for the world's dirty money, as almost all fraud and waste crime go unprosecuted, as no one has gone to jail for the financial crash or the poisoning of our rivers, this is manifestly untrue.
Eight years on, ARTICLE 19 and partners demand full justice for the brutal murders of Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová.
Slovakia must uphold media freedom and end harassment of and smear campaigns against journalists.
www.article19.org/resources/sl...
Logos JL Williams She walks on the charred ground, wings of smoke from the bones of her home rising. “Here was, there used to be, and here . . .” remembering every corner, each avenue of the story. Certain they have achieved victory the enemy leaves, laughing, “What’s one old woman?” with no idea – she’s the one who knows everything. Can whip up from the bloody froth a beginning.
She walks on the charred ground, wings of smoke
from the bones of her home rising…
—JL Williams, “Logos”
published in OUR REAL RED SELVES (Vagabond Voices, 2015)
#bookologythursday #poem #poetry
www.vagabondvoices.co.uk/poetry/our-r...
Okay, this is quite outstanding from Bedford Council.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Qalandia refugee camp and Kufr Aqab are cut off from Jerusalem by the apartheid wall and separated from other Palestinian towns. Now, a new Israeli settlement plan threatens to displace them completely.
Twilight of a Tyranny Edwin Morgan When we take prisoners from other worlds we are not cruel. We let their bodies die. They become words, filtered into air. We became words, we infiltrate the air. I know sometimes in the long midnights we throw open a window. It is hot, the bluish branches are all motionless. We cannot sleep. And some poor word creeps in. Cold, blue was your skin when I crept in. The mines are stiff with gold, our treasuries are locked and locked and locked, our guards are guarded by passwords we’ve suborned with baseless hopes. Deep in the vaults I am the password, hope. Even you might tremble at our plans, great lords. What do we care for life that comes and goes as we sit in our iron seats? We’re armed; there are no dragons; time is long. We shout, and words come singing with our wine. They shout. We sing the curdling of the wine. Astronomers once said our sun was dying. Where are they now? Our towers blaze and stare. We made them words to wander with the wind. We warned you, in the rising of the wind. You know you’ll never see your world again? Threats, bribes, tears, guns you can put away. No urns – no dust! Watch me at the switch, and then you can complain like nightingales for all the sense dead words will ever speak. Your thrones are death. Ours is the reign of speech.
When we take prisoners from other worlds
we are not cruel. We let their bodies die.
They become words, filtered into air…
—Edwin Morgan, “Twilight of a Tyranny”
a #ScienceFiction #poem from COLLECTED POEMS, @carcanet.bsky.social 1997
#bookologythursday #poetry
www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/inde...
The old order is breaking up in #Europe. Ahead of the decisive elections in #Hungary this spring, our editor @sallygimson.bsky.social reflects on a recent trip across central Europe ⬇️
www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/02/inde...
It is 100 months since #DaphneCaruanaGalizia was assassinated in Malta for holding power to account.
We continue to fight for justice for her killing & send our solidarity to Daphne's family & all our comrades in #Malta
#TruthNeverDies
We are delighted #PalestineAction won its appeal! Huge knock-on effects for #Filton24 & Brize Norton political prisoners, for direct action in general, for the 1,000s arrested under the Terrorism Act for showing support for Palestine Action, & for the liberation of Palestine.
Victory ✊
The longlist for the 2025 Duais Leabhair na Gàidhealtachd | Highland Book Prize has been announced. The Prize celebrates the talent, landscape, & cultural diversity of the Scottish Highlands & is open to works of fiction, non-fiction, & poetry
💙📚
www.highlandbookprize.org.uk/longlist/
#India: Under Modi, the government has long sought to tighten control over online speech. This new rule raises more alarm bells. How much due diligence can be done in 3 hours? Such haste will encourage platforms to over-censor to avoid penalties
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Children need their families. Refugee children are no different.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
When politicians will not speak - people must. The city belongs to all voices. #publicsydney
A book-shaped badge that reads 'Book lovers club'.
For the special reader in your life, nothing says 'I love you' like one of our beautiful bookmarks, quirky badges or handy book lights.
And remember, every purchase you make helps to spread a love of reading throughout Scotland. ❤️📚
shop.scottishbooktrust.com/collections/...
Journalist Mohammad Abu Thabet abducted after home raid in Beit Dajan.
#China: the recent purging of senior generals and the imprisonment of journalists show us that no one is safe but #XiJinping ⬇️ www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/02/jour...
Scottish PEN is overjoyed at the outcome of the trial of 6 activists held on remand without trial for 16 months.
It underlines the importance of jury trials & highlights the need to deproscribe Palestine Action.
Our solidarity with the activists & may justice continue to prevail.
#Filton24
Scottish PEN is deeply saddened & disturbed by this news, which has a serious impact on our members and the Scottish arts scene in general.
We're appalled by the sudden sacking of all CCA staff & extend our support to them.
We're also alarmed by reports of financial mismanagement by the CCA Board.
“Peaceful protest & solidarity should never be a crime, & nor should defending the right of others to protest peacefully. I hope that this decision will be a crucial step in overturning this ridiculous anti-democratic law.” ~ Maggie Chapman (Scottish Greens)
greens.scot/news/palesti...
Scottish PEN has always opposed the proscription of #PalestineAction and welcomes the attempt by Craig Murray to overturn this ban in Scotland.
Writer, activist and Vice-President of Scottish PEN, Lizzie Eldridge, appeared on the Palestine International Broadcast again, last week.
Lizzie writes, “Every time I meet the presenter, Osama, my heart breaks for his strength, dignity, brilliance and humanity.”
youtu.be/AdcwT6BpJuo?...
This means that the messaging function on this site is not available to us. If you need to contact Scottish PEN, please visit our website for details on how to do that. 2/2 scottishpen.org
As an organisation pledged to oppose suppression of freedom of expression, Scottish PEN is also committed to advocating for personal privacy.
Therefore, we will not be providing details required for age verification on this site at this time, not least due to the nature of the data requested. 1/2
A Calendar of Hares Anna Crowe for Valerie Gillies 1. At the raw end of winter the mountain is half snow, half dun grass. Only when snow moves does it become a hare. 2. If you can catch a hare and look into its eye, you will see the whole world. 3. That day in March watching two hares boxing at the field’s edge, she felt the child quicken. 4. It is certain Midas never saw a hare or he would not have lusted after gold. 5. When the buzzard wheels like a slow kite overhead the hare pays out the string. 6. The man who tells you he has thought of everything has forgotten the hare. 7. The hare’s form, warm yet empty. Stumbling upon it, he felt his heart lurch and race beneath his ribs. 8. Beset by fears, she became the hare who hears the mowers’ voices growing louder. 9. Light as the moon’s path over the sea, the run of the hare over the land. 10. The birchwood a dapple of fallen gold: a carved hare lies in a Pictish hoard. 11. Waking to the cry of a hare she ran and found the child sleeping. 12. November stiffens into December: hare and grass have grown a thick coat of frost.
At the raw end of winter
the mountain is half snow, half
dun grass. Only when snow
moves does it become a hare…
—Anna Crowe, “A Calendar of Hares”
published in A SECRET HISTORY OF RHUBARB (Mariscat, 2004)
#poem #poetry
annacrowepoet.com/2021/04/21/a...
