A dramatic rise in book challenges and book bans targeting what are often called “diverse books” in children’s literature is sweeping North America. While the bans are mostly seen as local issues in ...

PEN Canada was founded in 1983. We are a nonpartisan organization of writers and readers. One of our central roles is to defend the right to freedom of expression. We raise our voices against domestic ...

“There’s a lot of emotion unsaid between my family and myself,” Christine Wu says over a call, reaching us from her maritime home in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). She is speaking of her immigrant parents and ...

Nancy Huggett has won the 2024 RBC PEN Canada New Voices Award. For her winning submission, Revelation, she will receive a $3,000 cash prize and mentorship from a Canadian author. A jury of Canadian ...

The journalist and legal scholar Amy Lai has been awarded the 2021 PEN Canada/Ken Filkow Prize for courageously reporting on the “threats faced by both individuals and democratic institutions” in her ...

On February 28, 2020, you were arrested by Hong Kong police in your home above Mong Kok district. Fifteen officers took you away in a car. The press was alerted beforehand so that you could be shamed ...

Writers gather for sessions on the climate emergency and war. The 57th International Meeting of the Writers for Peace Committee this month hosted powerful witness and action in response to conflict ...

In the fall of 2019, PEN Canada collaborated with Ryerson’s Community Engaged Learning & Teaching (CELT) initiative and Literatures of Modernity graduate program in the Faculty of Arts to bring ...

TORONTO, Thursday, August 3, 2023 – Christine Wu has won the 2023 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award. For her winning submission, Hungry Ghosts, she will receive a $3,000 cash prize and mentorship from a ...

PEN Canada is now accepting submissions for the 2023 RBC PEN Canada New Voices Award. The award seeks to encourage new writing and to provide a space where unpublished writers (age 17 and over) can ...

Reza Baraheni, Iranian dissident, prodigious author and former president of PEN Canada (2001-03) has died, at the age of 86, in Toronto. He is survived by his wife Sanaz Sehhati of Toronto; daughter, ...

The annual award supports and celebrates emerging talent in Canadian literature. Unpublished writers are encouraged to submit short stories, creative nonfiction, journalism, and poetry. The ...