PEN x Pillowman Play Q&As
PEN International and Empire Street Productions have partnered towards three post-show Q&As taking place in London this summer, as part of its unique partnership with the West End production of multi award-winning Martin McDonagh’s electrifying play The Pillowman which is running at the Duke of York’s theatre until 2 September 2023.
We are delighted to share the recordings from the live Q&A’s below featuring renowed writers: Mona Arshi, Ben Okri, Burhan Sonmez, and lawyer Stella Assange. Each Q&A was moderated by journalist and podcaster, Hattie Crisell. The final Q&A will take place on 17 August with Lemn Sissay.
Q&A 1: Mona Arshi and Ben Okri
Photo by Roberk Brooks
Mona Arshi trained as a human rights lawyer and now is a poet, novelist, essayist, and member of PEN International Writers Circle. Her debut poetry collection Small Hands won the Forward Prize for best first collection in 2015. Her second collection Dear Big Gods was published in 2019. Mona is currently a fellow commoner in creative arts at Trinity College, Cambridge. Her debut novel Somebody Loves You was published by And Other Stories in 2021. Mona is a member of PEN International Writers Circle.
Ben Okri is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, anthologist, aphorist, playwright, and member of PEN International Writers Circle. He has also written film scripts. His works have won numerous national and international prizes, including the Booker Prize for Fiction. He has also received many honorary doctorates for his contribution to Literature. Recently, his Grenfell poem, on Channel Four YouTube, has received more than 6million visits on Facebook. Ben is a member of PEN International Writers Circle.
Q&A 2: Stella Assange and Burhan Sonmez
Photo by Roberk Brooks
Stella Assange (lawyer and Julian Assange's wife) joined Julian Assange’s international legal team in London in 2011, before he received political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Since 2020 she has been campaigning to free him from UK prison where he is under indefinite, administrative detention since 2019, and for the case against him to be dropped in the United States, where he faces 175 years for his WikiLeaks publications revealing war crimes and torture. Stella and Julian married in March 2022 in Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London. They have two children together (born 2017 and 2019).
Burhan Sonmez is an award-winning Kurdish novelist and lawyer from Turkey, and the author of five novels, translated into forty-two languages. He was elected President of PEN International on the 24th of September 2021, during PEN International’s Centenary Congress. He has written for various papers including The Guardian, Der Spiegel, La Repubblica. He is a Senior Member of Hughes Hall College and Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
Q&A 4: Lemn Sissay and Hattie Crisell
Photo by Roberk Brooks
Lemn Sissay is a poet, playwright, memoirist performer, broadcaster, and BAFTA nominated International prize winning writer. He was awarded an MBE for services to literature by The Queen of England, The Pen Pinter Prize and a Points of Light Award from The Prime Minister, and in 2021, he was named OBE for services to Literature and Charity.
Hattie Crisell is a freelance journalist based in London, and writes for The Times, Grazia, Vogue, Elle and others. She produces and hosts the podcast In Writing with Hattie Crisell, a series of interviews about the writing process, and she is currently working on a related book, to be published by Granta Books in 2024.