The year 2021 marked the centenary of PEN International and English
PEN, and 2022 marks the centenary of PEN America, PEN France and
many other PEN Centers around the world. For a century, PEN (Poets,
Essayists, Novelists) has brought together writers to celebrate and
share literature and to defend those who write. PEN has laid the
foundation for a global community of writers who seek out facts,
celebrate the creative imagination and champion freedom of
expression. For over 35 of those years, journalist and novelist
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman has been engaged with PEN as a member, as
the President of one of the large centers (PEN USA West) during the
year of Tiananmen Square and the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, as
Chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee
(1993-1997), as International Secretary (2004-2007), and continuing
as an International Vice President since 1996. She has also served
on the Boards and as Vice President of PEN American Center
(2008-2015) and the PEN Faulkner Foundation (1996-2021).PEN
Journeys: Memoir of Literature on the Line reflects a time when the
world was opening up-the Berlin Wall fell; the Soviet Union broke
apart; democracies were ascendant around the globe-and PEN was
often at the forefront. In many countries writers like Václav
Havel led the way as they were being released from prison. PEN
Journeys spans three decades and tracks PEN's centrality to many of
the events, to the individual writers, and to Joanne's own story as
she moved to Europe with nine and eleven-year-old sons who also
intersected with this time and with events to come. The period was
also a time when this sprawling organization, now with 157 centers
in over 100 countries, was finding it needed to reorganize and so
had its own revolution. PEN Journeys is filled with anecdotes of
the writers, including those well-known like Salman Rushdie, Orhan
Pamuk, Günter Grass, Ken Saro Wiwa, Anna Politkovskaya and others
and those less known but courageous writers. Writers set the
guardrails for free societies. Their freedom and freedom of
expression are vital for a democratic citizenry. PEN, the only
literary organization with consultative status at the United
Nations, holds watch. Proceeds from PEN Journeys will go to PEN
International's work, particularly its work for writers in prison
and at risk. "This memoir covers a crucial time in the history of
freedom of expression... filled with daring adventures,
philosophical debates and meetings with some of the bravest writers
and journalists who have risked so much to tell the truth."
-Jennifer Clement, President, PEN International 2015-2021 "I kept
reading Joanne Leedom-Ackerman's PEN Journeys and said, These need
to become a book. They tell the story of the important organization
PEN from the ground and through the insightful eyes of someone who
has worked and led the organization with passion, commitment and
friendship with writers around the world. PEN Journeys addresses
many important philosophical and political issues of the day with
narrative flair so that I wanted to keep reading and then had to
wait for the next instalment." -Azar Nafisi, author of Reading
Lolita in Tehran and The Republic of Imagination "Joanne
Leedom-Ackerman is the history of PEN incarnate. As president of a
center, Chair of the Writers-in-Prison Committee, International
Secretary, and a PEN International Vice President, she has been a
steady and guiding force in the organization and its dedication to
freedom of expression for more than one-third of PEN's first
century. Her dedication to literature and human rights personi
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