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A woman wearing a beige t-shirt and sunglasses stands in front of the River ThamesTaciana Niadbaj

Goethe-Institut London and English PEN Residency 2024
 Taciana Niadbaj

This year, we were delighted to welcome Taciana Niadbaj for our 2024 Literature Residency in collaboration with English PEN. 

Taciana Niadbaj is a poet, human rights activist, and the President of PEN Belarus. She is the author of the poetry collection Sirens Are Singing Jazz, for which she received the Maksim Bahdanovič Debut Award, and is the founder of the publishing house Połackija Łabitynty.

Taciana is also a translator into Belarusian of Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism by Ewa Thompson, co-author of translations into Belarusian of Our Merry Apocalypse by Leszek Kołakowski, and Twentieth-century Literary Theories by Anna Burzyńska and Michal Paweł Markowski.

In December 2022, she published Ales, by the Nobel Prize-winning writer, activist, and fellow PEN Belarus member Ales Bialiatski.

PEN Belarus

PEN Belarus was founded in 1989 by the Committee which included 20 Belarusian writers. It was admitted to PEN International in May 1990 at the 55 Congress on Madeira Island. Justice Ministry of the Republic of Belarus registered PEN Belarus on November 16th1990 on the grounds of the Statute and the Resolution of the Council of Ministers №274 dd. November 1st 1990 and reregisteredon October 31st 1999. As a member of PEN International PEN Belarus has a status A in the UNESCO and consultative status in the UN.

In 1994 PEN Belarus found two annual literary awards which are given to prominent writers to reward their work and to celebrate their achievements. These are Ales Adamovich Award and Frantsishak Bahushevich Award. In 2012 PEN Belarus became one of the founders of the Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Award. These awards still exist and, at the same time, new projects and awards are created.

Since 1996 PEN Belarus is a member of the Writers in Prison Committee established in 1960 by the Assembly of Delegates of PEN International.
 

Find out more about PEN Belarus

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