I believe there is no greater and more abject violation against a people than the act of putting them behind bars; prison is a manifestation of the failure of reason on the part of the powerful, an inarticulate dread to...
Read More
Writers converse in solitude with their words. By the nature of their work, they are amongst the loneliest people on earth. But writers in prison suffer a particularly acute and perverse castigation in their loneliness. They are punished precisely for...
Read More
The 27th of April 2019 marks 25 years of democracy in South Africa. At PEN SA we find ourselves thinking carefully not only about the urgencies of present and future freedoms, but also about our country’s past. For the last...
Read More
Congratulations to each of the PEN SA members whose books made the longlists of the Sunday Times Literary Awards – the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize and the Alan Paton Non-Fiction Award. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the...
Read More
The woman Hendrik finds injured on a deserted beach is unlike anything this West Coast fisherman has ever pulled from the ocean. Where her legs should be, there’s a fishtail. Could this be one of the water maidens his wife...
Read More
