The PEN Women Writers Committee will hold its annual meeting on 7 and 8 March. This year's meeting is called 'Our writing, our resistance'. 

The program is as follows:

Monday, March 7, 2022

Day I

13:45 GMT (London time) – Opening the meeting (practice room and free chat)

13:55 – Housekeeping note by Olha Mukha (PEN Secretariat)

14:00 – Empty Chair #1 Lourdes Maldonado (México) (presented by Alicia Quiñones, PEN Secretariat)

14:05 – WWC Chair - Welcome and Chair’s report by Zoë Rodriguez (PEN Sydney)

Q&A (10 min)

14:15 – Opening keynote speech by Asli Erdoğan

Asli Erdoğan is a Turkish writer, human rights activist, prize-winning novelist, and columnist for Özgür Gündem. In 2016 she was incarcerated and spent four months in pre-trial detention in Turkey. Today, she lives in exile in Germany.

14:30 – PEN VIDA count: report on the project

VIDA count, the PIWWC’s project to establish gender parity in literature based on literary awards continues in 2022. We will present the latest updates and next steps for this PEN International Initiative.

15:00 – Center updates (3 mins per Center) with comfort break

Please register your report during the registration process and focus on issues relating to women writers.

17:00 – Close.

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Day II

13:45 – Opening the meeting (practice room and free chat)

13:55 – Housekeeping note by Olha Mukha (PEN Secretariat)

14:00 – Empty Chair #2 Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam) (presented by Ross Holder, PEN Secretariat)

14:05 – Hate Speech Tool Kit by Veera Tyhtilä (PEN Finland)

Case of Paola Ugaz (Perú).

Hate speech is nothing new for Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz. She has been receiving harassment, threats, and lawsuits throughout her career. She recently won a lawsuit in which she was accused of defamation in connection with her investigation of a conservative Catholic institution, and she has two more lawsuits pending.

Q&A session

14:50 – PUBLIC EVENT. PANEL DISCUSSION ON HATE SPEECH AND ONLINE TROLLING

COVID lockdowns over the last two years have brought faces into our homes when we could not meet in person. This will have lasting impacts on how we live, accelerating change that had begun pre-pandemic: increased working from home, online purchasing, video calls with loved ones and colleagues. A negative impact of increased reliance on digital communication, especially on social media, is the rise and rise of online trolling and hate-speech. This is often a gendered activity directed at women and concentrated on women with opinions who write. Sometimes, tragically, hate-speech online translates to physical violence in person.

Following an outline of what the problem is and some tactics for how to respond to this phenomenon, we have asked three leading women writers to discuss this topic with us. We will discuss their personal experiences, how they've learned to respond to it, and advice they have for others, including legislators, on steps that can be taken to respond with resilience and strength to share their words with the world.

Panellists: Nina George (PEN Germany), Nadezda Azhgikhina (PEN Moscow), and Maria Karina Bolasco (PEN Philippines)

Moderated by Zoe Rodriguez (PEN Sydney)

Q&A moderated by Tanja Tuma (PEN Slovenia)

Live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/penin...

16:00 – SEXIST OF THE YEAR presentation by Nadezda Azhgikhina (PEN Moscow) (15 min)

Sexist of the Year is a long-term feminist project, based on an anti-award annual award, given to opinion makers, politicians, public figures, artists, journalists, bloggers, to advertisements and media companies for the worst sexist statements. Nominations and jury work online. The award ceremony is usually an important media event and at the same time vivid education in gender equality and anti-discrimination.

16:15 – COMFORT BREAK

16:30 – POETRY SESSION Our Voices:, Our Resistance!

Empty Chair #3. Meral Şimşek (Kurdish poet)

A global and multilingual Free the Word poetry Zoom

Poetry that shines, roars, and soars with the POWER of the Word to bring & sing the Change we long to see!!! Please REGISTER to Attend!

14 poets from 13 countries!!!

Register for the literary event HERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/webina...

OPEN Link to follow literary event:

Live on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/judyt...

 

Practical information

The sessions will be held online as a closed, by invitation-only meeting. Further details and technical information will be communicated to confirmed participants closer to the meeting.