PEN Malaysia: First Public Meeting & Introduction

Aspiring PEN Malaysia would like to invite you to our first Public Meeting to introduce you to the Constitution of PEN Malaysia, the PEN Charter, and to conduct all necessary formalities related to the creation of a new PEN centre.

Formed in 1921, PEN is the world’s oldest organisation for writers, and has fought for writers’ freedoms around the world for almost a century. PEN has been key in the lobbying of writers in prison and in the fight to release writers and journalists who are incarcerated under regimes that do not support the freedom of speech, writing and reading, along with the promotion of writing and literary arts of said country.

We have 20 founding members who have signed the PEN Charter, and in accordance with PEN International in London, we need to open this meeting to ALL Malaysians who work with words, and who believe in the power and necessity of writers’ freedoms. Our steering committee has taken more than seven months to draft the PEN Malaysia Constitution, which has been approved by PEN International, and we now need to take the necessary steps forward in the creation of a new centre.

The next PEN International Congress will take place in September 2019 in Manila. If we are to be introduced as a new centre, we will need to have two Public Meetings, with this being the first. We hope that you will be able to attend this meeting, so we can introduce you to PEN Malaysia and what we stand for, and what we hope to do for literary freedoms in Malaysia.