Pen pals writing in Hills

HILLS residents and budding writers will have the opportunity to meet well-known author Arnold Zable at Belgrave Library on Sunday.
Mr Zable, who is the president of Melbourne PEN, will speak to local writers and residents about the international organisation’s role in opposing censorship and supporting writers around the world who have been imprisoned, tortured or forced into exile.
Mr Zable said that International PEN recognises that literature knows no frontiers.
He said Melbourne PEN is one of the 130 PEN centres in all five continents and in 94 counties.
“We are united in our love for the written word, and in our support for writers silenced in their own countries,” he said.
Mr Zable is well known for his books, including the acclaimed Jewels and Ashes, which won five literary awards, Wanderers and Dreamers, the award-winning Cafe Scheherazade, The Fig Tree and Scrap of Heaven.
The meeting at Belgrave Library on Sunday, 7 May has been organised by the PEN in the Hills, a local group, which has recently been established as a branch of Melbourne PEN.
Local author and PEN member, Hanifa Deen, said PEN really makes a difference, but that it was not just the big name authors who receive support.
“There are no good writers or bad writers under PEN’s charter – only writers at risk,” she said.
Mr Zable said hundreds of writers and translators have been supported by PEN, including Salman Rushdie, Nigerian author and Nobel Literature Prize recipient Wole Soyinka, Taslima Nasreen, Vincent Macombe and Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk.
The meeting at Belgrave Library is the first of a number of PEN in the Hills activities planned for this year.
Anyone interested in learning more about PEN’s activities is invited to attend the meeting.
For more information, contact Hanifa Deen on 9754 2523.