Pen Tangles; Pent Angels

"Freedom to Write" by sabaanaeh, (from: toonpool)

"In July 1960, International PEN established a committee to monitor countries 'where writers had been imprisoned because they spoke or wrote their minds.' Initially, the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) focused on writers in Albania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France and Romania. Later, its scope was expanded to include other groups. Today the committee monitors hundreds of bloggers, editors, journalists, playwrights, poets, publishers, screenwriters and translators who have been threatened, attacked, detained, tortured or killed for expressing the truth as they see it."

— PEN Canada
Read more…

"Our members include poets and novelists, playwrights and journalists, emerging writers and prizewinners. Your membership dollars [for the Month of June 2013, only $40.00] will help fund a slate of vital programming, from our writers-in-prison committee, which has brought attention to imprisoned writers ranging from Ken Saro-Wiwa to Anna Politkovskaya, to the writers-in-exile committee, which supports those who have been forced from their home countries for simply expressing themselves, to the national affairs committee, which monitors censorship, intimidation, and matters of free expression closer to home…."
— PEN Canada
Read more...

What They're Saying about Alison Pick's Latest Novel…

"Far to Go is the first novel I’ve read that covers the lead up to World War II from the Czechoslovakian perspective, so a lot of the historical information was new to me. But instead of confusing the reader with a lot of names, dates and politics, Pick has chosen to concentrate on the lives of an ordinary Czechoslovakian family – a family who at first don’t realise how much danger they are in."
— She Reads Novels


"[...] very deftly structured and the storytelling is seamless. [...] Far to Go appears poised to gain a wide and significant readership, and deservedly so." - The Globe and Mail



"Weaving Czech history with a contemporary mystery, Far To Go shows terrific craft and emotional intelligence. A winner. " - NOW

"What makes this novel special...is Pick's challenging, even audacious way of recounting it...a novel that builds to an almost unbearable climax...Far to Go explores the ways in which truth and facts can be assembled like so many fragments of stained glass in a kaleidoscope." - The Montreal Gazette


You'll find Far to Go at Roxanne's Reflections Book & Card Shop.
And you can meet Alison Pick (along with Johanna Skibsrud, Richard Greene, Sarah Selecky, Cynthia Holz and Nicholas Ruddock) at the Festival on Sunday, May 29, 20011.