Scottish PEN

Eman Al Haj Ali - We won’t be silenced (in person and by Zoom) Eman Al Haj Ali talks about her recent experiences in Gaza and the deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists

On 16 August, Scottish PEN presents Eman Al Haj Ali talking about her recent experiences in Gaza and the deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists.

This event will take place in person at The Ark in Glasgow and by Zoom video. Find out more and register: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eman-al-ha...

The Wishing Tree by Kathleen Jamie I stand neither in the wilderness nor fairyland but in the fold of a green hill the tilt from one parish into another. To look at me through a smirr of rain is to taste the iron in your own blood because I hoard the common currency of longing: each wish each secret assignation. My limbs lift, scabbed with greenish coins I draw into my slow wood fleur-de-lys, the enthroned Brittania. Behind me, the land reaches towards the Atlantic. And though I’m poisoned choking on the small change of human hope, daily beaten into me look: I am still alive – in fact, in bud.

I stand neither in the wilderness
nor fairyland

but in the fold
of a green hill

the tilt from one parish
into another…

—Kathleen Jamie, “The Wishing Tree”
SELECTED POEMS (Picador, 2018)
#BookWormSat #poem

Hear “The Wishing Tree” on @thepoetryarchive.bsky.social
poetryarchive.org/poem/wishing...

Happy opening day to our chums at @edbookfest.bsky.social !!! #Edinburgh is always a book lover's paradise, but August is even more special for our UNESCO City of Literature.

www.edbookfest.co.uk?gad_source=1...

🚨 Haia Mohammed on @bbclondon.bsky.social nNews yesterday from Gⓐza on hoping to take up her Goldsmiths scholarship in September & the biometric visa block.

🚨 Please amplify & write your MP to encourage the govt to see sense.

Letter template: bit.ly/44SLnX9

‘They used my chain to choke me’: Chris Smalls speaks out after Israeli prison assault “What I experienced is a glimpse of what Palestinians have to go through.” Prominent labour activist Chris Smalls speaks out after returning to his home in the United States following his detention in an Israeli prison. Weeks ago, Smalls decided to join the Handala flotilla, which sailed towards Gaza in an attempt to break Israel’s siege. Now, after Israeli forces intercepted the ship in international waters, Smalls says he was singled out, violently assaulted and racially abused by Israeli forces. Following his return home, Smalls joined us on Real Talk to open up about what really happened.

‘They used my chain to choke me’: Chris Smalls speaks out after Israeli prison assault - https://www.middleeasteye.net/video/they-used-my-chain-choke-me-chris-smalls-speaks-out-after-israeli-prison-assault-real-talk

France condemns Netanyahu's Gaza takeover plan <article data-history-node-id="426919" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/france-condemns-netanyahus-gaza-takeover-plan" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/france-condemns-netanyahus-gaza-takeover-plan" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">France condemns Netanyahu's Gaza takeover plan</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X on Friday that his country "strongly condemns the Israeli government's plan aimed at preparing for the complete occupation of Gaza".</p> <p>"Such an operation would worsen an already catastrophic situation without enabling the release of Hamas hostages, its disarmament, or its surrender," he wrote.&nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </article>

France condemns Netanyahu's Gaza takeover plan - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/france-condemns-netanyahus-gaza-takeover-plan

Image shows people displaced by conflict and fleeing from Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip arrive carrying their belongings in Gaza City with the words "There is nowhere safe in Gaza" written

Israel’s horrifying plans to take over Gaza City will lead to more death and destruction.

States, like the UK and US, have enabled this escalation by transferring arms and failing to take concrete action to stop the genocidal assault on occupied Gaza.

Tove Jansson Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was born in Helsinki into Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority. Her father was a sculptor and her mother a graphic designer and illustrator. Winters were spent in the family’s ...

Tove Jansson's birthday is tomorrow 🎉🥳 & @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social is celebrating with a sale on her books! www.nyrb.com/collections/...

Dos Amigos: Ideas que florecen del desierto Podcast · Enrique Lomas y Horacio Nájera · Enrique Lomas y Horacio Nájera son dos amigos que comparten el amor a la vida, al periodismo y a los atardeceres en el desierto. Por muchos años, Enrique y…

From longtime PEN member, Luis Horacio Nájera, comes a weekly podcast on #Mexico, journalism, and life lessons learned along the way.

"Dos Amigos" is available in Spotify and Apple podcasts.

Give it a listen: buff.ly/9micFNG

Edinburgh - this Book Fringe chat with Mahmoud & Matthew about Gaza and Palestinian culture is Tuesday 12th, 1pm, and it is FREE, join us!

(or watch online! Because yes, it'll be livestreamed like all our Book Fringe gigs!)
lighthousebookshop.com/events/stori...

Facial Recognition - Liberty Every police force in the country is using dangerous facial recognition technology that allows them to ID and track any one of us. We urgently need safeguards to protect us from it as we go about our ...

We need clear safeguards on facial rec. That means proper independent oversight of how it's used, and strict rules on who is placed on a police watchlist.

www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/fundamental/...

'Met Police facial recognition tech mistook me for wanted man' Shaun Thompson is challenging the Met Police's use of live facial recognition technology.

A man wrongly flagged by London’s live facial recognition tech calls it “stop and search on steroids” - and he’s taking the Met Police to court. Here’s why this legal challenge could change how we’re watched in public spaces 👇

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Why this self-taught artist started using shipping tags to make her collages | CBC Arts When Seema Shah found herself bedridden, shipping tags became a surprise creative outlet. Now, in her new exhibit Missing Pieces — on now at Vancouver’s Outsiders and Others gallery — she’s showing...

"Writing became crucial during particularly difficult periods, allowing her to process overwhelming emotions through journaling."

From Diary Marif (Kurdish journalist; PEN Writer in Exile), the story of a Vancouver artist with PTSD in search of creativity she could manage from bed: buff.ly/Phh7Xwf

Belarus: Anti-extremism laws put digital rights at risk - ARTICLE 19 Anti-extremism laws are increasingly used by the Lukashenko regime to harass and prosecute dissenting voices in Belarus.

⚡New resource
How does it feel when a like, a comment, or a group chat can land you in jail?
In #Belarus, vague anti-extremism laws are increasingly used to silence dissent.
Read our analysis ⬇️
#StandWithBelarus #FreedomOfExpression
www.article19.org/resources/be...

“Poetry is a way of asserting agency, even if it’s by meditating on physical destruction, even as tens of thousands have been killed.”

~ Amelia Glaser (2024)
irishpages.org/product/vol-...

@irishpen.bsky.social @scottishpen.bsky.social

Urge the UK Home Secretary to Grant Student Visa and Defer Biometrics for Palestinian Students and Families n Gaza - Positive Action in Housing We are urgently calling on the Home Secretary to defer biometric visa requirements for Palestinian medics with university offers in the UK and issue decisions before September 2025, when their courses...

We urge our members & friends to send this template email to your MP, urging that biometric visa requirements be deferred for Palestinian students
Please share widely
www.paih.org/get-involved...

70 questions the UK government must answer about Gaza ‘Mainstream’ journalists have failed to investigate the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. Here is what every minister should be asked.

👉 NEW -- 70 Questions the UK Government Must Answer About Gaza

By the @declassifieduk.org team

‘Mainstream’ journalists have failed to investigate the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. Here is what every minister should be asked.

www.declassifieduk.org/70-questions...

The stories we tell matter. I know this not from watching but from memory. I was just a child, held behind barbed wire in a U.S. internment camp, when an atomic bomb obliterated Hiroshima—killing members of my family.

The Gaza students with scholarships to UK unable to take up their places Visa obstacles threaten to dash the hopes of 40 students due to start in September. Here are some of their stories

Please write to your MP and demand that the Home Office act to help these students make it out of Gaza to study in the UK this September. Time is running out to get the government to move on this; they absolutely could take action and are — so far — choosing not to.

Dirk was arrested in Parliament Square under the Terrorism Act 2000 after holding a sign which stated “I oppose genocide - I support Palestine Action”.

On August 9th, over 500 people will hold this same sign in Parliament Square.

Sign up at: wedonotcomply.org

‘Outrageous’: Georgia sentences Mzia Amaglobeli to 2 years for slap - Committee to Protect Journalists New York, August 6, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is horrified by the two-year sentence given to prominent Georgian media manager Mzia Amaglobeli on Wednesday, in a case previously denounc...

CPJ is horrified by the two-year sentence given to prominent Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli. We denounce the case as disproportionate and politicized and renew our call for her release.

cpj.org/2025/08/outr...

#FreeMzia

SHRC: PoliceScotland may have breached human rights in policing pro-Palestine demos.

Articles 10 & 11 ECHR protect the right to free expression & freedom of assembly.

Arrests under the Terrorism Act "risks disproportionately restricting the right to peaceful protest".

At the Moderns today. Alasdair Gray's 'Eden and After' is always worth pausing at for a while.

Copies of the book of Gallus being signed by our contributors.

Circle member Jenni Coutts holding her recent BSFA award, flanked by Circle member Neil Williamson and Luna Press editor Francesca Barbini.

Brian M. Milton, E.M. Faulds and Neil Williamson, editors of Gallus, speak to a full room of 200 plus people at Glasgow Worldcon on 10th August 2024.

The GSFWC Christmas dinner at Ichiban in Glasgow! A range of mostly white folks sat at a table, ranging genders and aged from 20s to 70s."

If you'd like to know more about the Glasgow SF Writers' Circle and our 35+ years of critiquing Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror, there's two ways to find out.

Firstly, there's our Linktree, with social media, official website and how you can trial a night at the Circle.

linktr.ee/gsfwc

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New Writing Scotland Submission Manager New Writing Scotland publishes works by writers resident in Scotland or Scots by birth, upbringing, or inclination. Prose (fiction and nonfiction); poetry; drama; screenplays; and graphic artwork (mon...

#WritingCommunity!
Submissions invited to NEW WRITING SCOTLAND 44! We want poetry & prose in English, #Gaelic, & #Scots from writers who are Scottish by residence, birth, or inclination. All successful contributors are paid – deadline 31 Oct!

Submit free via Submittable 👇
nws.submittable.com/submit

Venezuela: PEN International calls for the release of journalists detained amid deepening crackdown  — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide “No society can thrive in silence. To persecute those who inform is to deny citizens their right to the truth. We demand the immediate release of detained Venezuelan journalists, an end to state haras...

Venezuela: PEN International calls for the release of journalists detained amid deepening crackdown  — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide www.pen-international.org/news/venezue... @penamerica.bsky.social @aliciaqui.bsky.social @germna.bsky.social

⭕ 🧵1/ On August 1, a court hearing was held at Batumi City Court in the case of detained journalist Mzia Amaglobeli.

Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals ‘similar to Russia’, internal British army report says 'Common' to find 'deep unease' among British troops over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, military insider tells Declassified

An internal British army media report acknowledges Israel is “bombing hospitals and ambulances”.

It claims Israeli troops are breaching the Geneva Convention in ways not done by Germany in World War Two.

www.declassifieduk.org/israeli-atta...

Growth of foreign repression on UK soil going unchecked – JCHR report warns - Committees - UK Parliament The Joint Committee on Human Rights has called for stronger action to stop the growth of transnational repression (TNR). In a report published today, it warns that foreign governments are being increa...

Transnational repression is on the rise, including from Russia, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

Governments around the world must take firm action to protect journalists, activists and communities at risk, and defend their right to freedom of expression.

committees.parliament.uk/committee/93...

Mary-Ann Stephenson confirmed as EHRC chair despite MPs’ objections Stephenson to take over at equality watchdog even though committees raised concerns about breadth of experience

Mary-Ann Stephenson, a transphobic TERF, has been confirmed as the new chair of the equalities watchdog of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Human rights have been taken over by haters in the UK.

www.theguardian.com/...

#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA