International Writers Project Overview

PEN America and the Brown University Literary Arts Department are responsible for one of the most important and exciting literary fellowships currently running. The Brown University Literary Arts Department forged, with the aid of Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies... [more]

PEN America and the Brown University Literary Arts Department are responsible for one of the most important and exciting literary fellowships currently running. The Brown University Literary Arts Department forged, with the aid of Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies and funding from a grant from the William H. Donner Foundation, to create the International Writers Project, an institution which offers fellowships each year to one to two writers from countries in which they and their work face censorship, threats, and other potential dangers; residencies have been given to such writers as Pierre Mumbere Mujomba, Shahrnush Parsipur, Shahryar Mandanipour, Moniro Ravanipour, Chenjerai Hove, and Ma Thida. An annual speaker series takes place each Spring, during which a great number of readings, lectures, and panels are offered at Brown to the public. Readers and speakers at these events frequently include past fellows as well as such other writers and free speech and human rights advocates as Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, Nurddin Farah, Jack Mapanje, Amitav Ghosh, Siri Hustvedt, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, and Larry Siems, among others. [show less]