New Writing North is hosting this year's annual PEN Lecture in Newcastle on 19 June 2025. Home Fire author Kamila Shamsie will be reflecting on the state of free expression in our current era of upheaval and conflict and exploring the hope that the principles of the PEN Charter – from one of the world's oldest human rights organisations – offer for the future. Chaired by Preti Taneja, NCLA.
English PEN’s annual PEN Lecture invites a leading writer to reflect on the current state of free expression, and to explore the resonance – or dissonance – of the words of the PEN Charter, the guiding principles of the PEN movement, with our current reality.
Kamila Shamsie is the author of eight novels, including Best of Friends, Burnt Shadows, Kartography, and Home Fire which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2018). A Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature and former Vice President of English PEN, she grew up in Karachi and now lives in London and in Doha where she is the inaugural Writer in Residence at Georgetown University in Qatar. Her novels have been translated into over 30 languages.
The 2025 PEN Lecture is hosted in partnership with New Writing North and the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts, with support from Gem Arts.
Book sales and signing with Forum Books after the event.
Date: Thursday 19 June 2025, 6-7:30pm
Location: Culture Lab, Newcastle University, NE1 7RU
Cost: £10
Book your place
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