PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile hosted the inaugural event of their Voices of Freedom series featuring journalists, novelists, poets and human rights activists from Columbia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
Each writer is a survivor of a repressive regime who fled to Canada and uses writing to reconnect themselves to their purpose and passions.
According to their website, PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile Program was created “to provide solidarity and support for writers, journalists, poets, editors, translators, essayists and playwrights who have been forced to leave countries in which their freedom of expression was not protected.”
The event was kicked off by Pen Canada’s president Grace Westcott and hosted in memory of Aaron Berhane, the former group leader who passed away of COVID-19 in 2021. Berhane’s daughter, Freweni Aaron, read an excerpt from his biography.
The other writers who read their work were Gezahegn Mekonnen Demissie, from Ethiopia; Onder Deligoz from Turkey; Pedro Restrepo, from Columbia; Amir Yazdanbod, from Iran; and Abdulrahman Matar, from Syria.
