New spotlight on Tomorrow Club is live, amplifying young voices across Asia until the new year. Over 30 bright young names from 20 countries joined up with inspiring stories, in truth and fiction, opening personal windows into a diverse range of contexts and experiences around the region ⬇️

Spotlight: Asia

tomorrowclub.world

Asia Spotlight is live! 🌏 This new series from our Young Writers Committee @youngwriterspen.bsky.social features voices from Bangladesh, Singapore, Thailand, and more, exploring censorship and resilience through personal reflections. Read the full overview ⬇️ tomorrowclub.world/spotlights/s...

Spotlight: Asia

tomorrowclub.world

Young writers are wielding their pens to confront urgent global issues. Ege Dündar, author and project lead with @youngwriterspen.bsky.social, discusses why we must support the next generation of writers and advocates to build solidarity and drive change. bsky.app/profile/peni...

PEN International@peninternational.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Our youngest board member, Turkish-born Ege Dündar, is an author-activist leading a new context for young citizens’ place in a troubled world. Read his latest article with Publishing Perspectives ⬇️ publishingperspectives.com/2025/10/pen-... @youngwriterspen.bsky.social

Delighted to work with @youngwriterspen.bsky.social on the spotlight on Asia. www.tomorrowclub.world/spotlights/s...

Spotlight: Asia

tomorrowclub.world

Highly recommend @youngwriterspen.bsky.social

PEN International@peninternational.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Asia Spotlight is live! 🌏 This new series from our Young Writers Committee @youngwriterspen.bsky.social features voices from Bangladesh, Singapore, Thailand, and more, exploring censorship and resilience through personal reflections. Read the full overview ⬇️ tomorrowclub.world/spotlights/s...

Young people have long led solidarity movements. In SPOTLIGHT: AMERICAS, a new trilingual publication of the Tomorrow Club (@youngwriterspen.bsky.social), young writers embody free expression and show solidarity through poetry, prose and translation. Read & share: tomorrowclub.world/spotlights/s...

Spotlight: Americas

tomorrowclub.world

BRAVA! BRAVO! BRILLIANT Tomorrow Club LAUNCHED by @youngwriterspen.bsky.social! To archive & amplify young people's voices shaping our societies; connect brave creative witnesses across borders & exchange stories, strategies & solidarity, & learn from & support each other. www.tomorrowclub.world

Meet the next generation speaking out for free expression. From shrinking civic space to defending democracy, PEN International’s Young Writers Committee (@youngwriterspen.bsky.social) raises their voices with urgency and hope ⬇️ www.pen-international.org/committee-ne...

Voices of The Young Writers Committee — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide

Meet the next generation of writers and activists speaking out on the issues that matter most. From the shrinking of civic space to highlighting freedom of expression as the bedrock of democracy, memb...

pen-international.org

“Jail isn’t always a room. Sometimes, it’s an entire city.” In his piece “Beyond This Wall of Sea: Dreams and Oppurtunities Await”, young journalist Hassan Abo Qamar writes from Gaza — a place where dreams are trapped behind barbed wire, and even the sea feels like a wall.

“Freedom still tastes like a distant promise.” In Of Freedom, Culture, and Happy Thirsts, Togolese writer Wamo Nunyali explores how the illusion of post-independence freedom still weighs on Africa’s youth — and how culture, silence, and survival shape the way they resist.

🐦 “A baby needs freedom more than food and water.”�In this intimate allegory by Iranian writer Benyamin Abbasi, two birds trapped in a cage debate hope, motherhood, and what it means to live freely — or die trying. 💭 Read full story: tomorrowclub.world/articles/yel... @peninternational.bsky.social

Yellow and Blue

tomorrowclub.world

With membership from 58 countries, @peninternational.bsky.social‬’s new Young Writers Committee is mobilizing the next generation of writers and advocates. Read and share our latest blog to support their work and follow youngwriterspen.bsky.social: pen.org/pen-internat...

PEN International Young Writers Committee Brings Advocacy to Next Generation - PEN America

The Young Writers Committee aims to connect authors under 35 through mentorship, advocacy, collaborative projects, and storytelling spaces.

pen.org

Nadia, Translation and International Manager at English PEN (@englishpen_) and member of the Young Writers Committee (@pen_youth) steering group, shares how initiatives for under 35s are helping young people speak freely and share their voices amid growing threats to freedom of expression.

Featured in the latest PEN/OPP: Tomorrow Club – Young Voices 📖 Malawian poet Wongani Nyasulu writes with urgency and clarity about gender equality and the right to speak up. Read her powerful poetry in PEN/OPP ⬇️ penopp.org/articles/gir...

Girls Like Us

Wild lives in our souls We are dreamers often wanderers Traversing to depths most would fear

penopp.org

Read more from PEN America (@penamerica.bsky.social) about how the Young Writers Committee's (@youngwriterspen.bsky.social) new global network is shaping the future of literary activism ⬇️

PEN America@penamerica.bsky.social · last yr.

Young people worldwide refuse to be silenced. Authors Ayi Renaud Dossavi and @ege-dundar.bsky.social spoke to us about the power of international solidarity and how @youngwriterspen.bsky.social connects young authors with storytelling spaces, advocacy, and mentorship. pen.org/pen-internat...

“Freedom is not given. It is a struggle.” In Freedom, Youth, and Africa, Malawian poet and activist Wezi Glory Msukwa-Panje reflects on the weight, betrayal, and persistence of freedom across African history — and the fire still carried by its youth today.

Young people worldwide refuse to be silenced. Authors Ayi Renaud Dossavi and @ege-dundar.bsky.social spoke to us about the power of international solidarity and how @youngwriterspen.bsky.social connects young authors with storytelling spaces, advocacy, and mentorship. pen.org/pen-internat...

Egyptian poet, lyricist, and pro-democracy activist Galal El-Behairy has been unjustly imprisoned since 2018. Initially detained for the lyrics of the protest song “Balaha”, he was later sentenced to three years in prison for his poetry collection The Finest Women on Earth.

In her powerful poem Girls Like Us, Malawian writer and gender activist @wongie_nyasulu explores what it means to grow up as a girl navigating culture, silence, and survival—with a pen in hand.

Since 7 February 2021, Rwandan poet Innocent Bahati has been missing. He left for a dinner in Nyanza and never returned. No charges. No trial. No answers.

We are reeds – we may bend, but we will not break.” 🇭🇹🔥

🌍 Our first regional focus AFRICA is live on our website.
Voices from Togo to Malawi, from South Africa to Haiti, rise in urgent unison.

✍️ Wongani Nyasalu is an economist and co-founder of Awake for Change, an NGO supporting rural girls through education and human rights. She’s also a member of PEN Malawi and the Commonwealth Youth Gender and Equality Network.

New Podcast: Brave Young Voices of Today and Tomorrow — Episode 1 is out now! open.spotify.com/episode/6Do4...

Ayi Renaud Dossavi, Acting Chair of PEN International’s new Young Writers Committee, shares what this milestone means for young writers, creatives, and activists around the world. More voices shaping this new chapter to come — stay tuned.

**You asked. We answered.** Everything you need to know about joining, submitting, and connecting with the PEN Young Writers Committee & The Tomorrow Club — in one thread. 👇

#Türkiye: We urge the immediate release of journalist Furkan Karabay and an end to the judicial harassment against him. He faces charges often used to silence dissent. Read more ➡️ www.pen-international.org/news/turkiye... #JournalismIsNotACrime

Türkiye: Release and end judicial harassment of Furkan Karabay  — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide

‘PEN International said it time and again: journalism is not a crime. Furkan Karabay is behind bars and on trial in Türkiye merely for carrying out his job. As we command the power of young writers in...

pen-international.org

Tomorrow Club brings together the stories of brave young people across borders who reimagine their societies, embolden solidarity, and collective action. Join us! Submit your story to (tomorrowclub.world) and join your local Pen Centre!

Galal El-Behairy, this year's PEN/Barbey #FreedomToWrite Award Honoree, was 27 years old when he was arrested. @youngwriterspen.bsky.social highlights the Egyptian poet's unjust and ongoing detention with an #EmptyChair in its latest Spotlight, Young Voices from Africa.

Young Writers Committee@youngwriterspen.bsky.social · last yr.

Egyptian poet, lyricist, and pro-democracy activist Galal El-Behairy is unjustly imprisoned since 2018. Initially detained for the lyrics of protest song “Balaha”, he was later sentenced to three years in prison for his poetry collection The Finest Women on Earth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjBd...

#Türkiye: Hamza Kaan and Mehmet Üçar face up to 15 years in prison on fabricated terror grounds for their writings. Join us in urging their immediate release. Take action now: www.pen-international.org/news/turkiye...

Türkiye: Release and drop charges against journalists Hamza Kaan and Mehmet Üçar — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide

RAPID ACTION NETWORK  - RAN 01/2025 21 May 2025 : Journalists Hamza Kaan and Mehmet Üçar have been detained since 26 November 2024 on fabricated terror-related grounds for their writings. They wil...

pen-international.org