Make Space Campaign

PEN International’s Make Space campaign aims to ensure displaced writers can actively contribute to global literatures and public discourse around migration

Together we must shape a context for free expression in which all voices and stories have worth. Together we must challenge xenophobia and racism. Together we will shape a world with space for everyone and - as writers - it is with words and stories that we start.'

- from the Make Space mission statement.

PEN International’s Make Space campaign aims to ensure displaced writers can actively contribute to global literatures and public discourse around migration.

Many of our members around the world are displaced writers who have been forced to resettle because of threats associated with their professional work. They are part of a broader global crisis, in which 1 in 113 people worldwide have been forced to leave their homes.

The PEN Charter commits us to promote good understanding and mutual respect between nations and people, so we will be doing everything we can to combat hatred and xenophobia.

Today we launch the briefing for our Make Space campaign. You can read the press release here.

Through our Make Space campaign, we will be:

• Creating opportunities to promote the writing of displaced and refugee writers

• Strengthening voices of displaced writers in global migration debates

• Broadening the impact and reach of our protection work with writers at risk

• Countering xenophobia and hate

Watch our interview with poet and translator Asieh Amini, who discusses migration as a mother, what it means to be 'an exile', and the world's shifting borders: