Bishkek, Sept. 26, 2018. /Kabar/. The PEN club of Central Asia intends to raise the role of writers and fight for their rights as authors, representatives of this organization told on Wednesday during a press conference at the Kabar News Agency.
Just recently, the PEN club held a congress with the participation of writers from the countries of the Central Asian region, as well as Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, where the possibilities of cooperation between the missions were discussed.
"Today the literary world of Kyrgyzstan stews in its own juice. We do not know the literary trends around the world, and where the modern world literature is going. Therefore, such events are necessary for our modern writers to keep pace with the world current," the poet, scriptwriter and filmmaker Dalmira Tilepbergenova noted, speaking before journalists.
Today the PEN club of Central Asia includes 56 writers, most of whom are representatives of the literary world of Kyrgyzstan. There are also writers of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan in the organization.
"PEN is a non-political organization, but a human rights organization. The basic postulate of PEN is that literature should be above politics. A PEN member must be above politics and should not sell his pen and his aspirations to suit political trends. The main mission of PEN is the protection of freedom of expression and the integration of writers into the world community,” Tilepbergenova noted.
Thus, throughout the years of its work, the PEN club of Central Asia managed to raise its status from a Bishkek organization to a regional one, comprising writers and journalists under its defensive wing in almost all countries of Central Asia.
Another important point in the activity of the PEN club of Central Asia was the election of a new president, whose responsibilities had been fulfilled by Tilepbergenova since 2007. Osmonakun Ibraimov became the newly elected head of the regional club.
"We have often talked about the crisis and the scarce financing of literary activity in the country, but we see that books are published in volumes, and the shelves in bookshops demonstrate it. This is all thanks to the beginning that was laid by our predecessors in the literary world of Kyrgyzstan. And the main task of the PEN club is to continue their path,” Ibraimov said.
Taking over the management of the club, he said that in the near future the organization intends to create a website where the authors' works and translations of their works will be posted, and the issue of protecting the rights of writers to intellectual property and the right to remuneration for intellectual work will be raised.
"Because of the lack of reward, writers today are poor and live dismally. It is good when they sometimes receive some awards, but most of the writers are in difficult living conditions. We have a lot of work, besides this, we have a lot of work to protect political civil liberties,” the President of the PEN club of Central Asia shared his plans.
Participants of the press conference also added that for joining the club, wishing writers and journalists need to receive a request from two of its representatives, who have been registered with the organization for at least five years.
In addition, anyone wishing to join the club must have recognized works, both in electronic and written formats. The amount of the entry fee in Kyrgyzstan is 40 euros and an annual contribution of 10 euro is also envisaged.
These funds, according to the speakers, go to the office needs of the organization, and are redirected to the main office in London. The London office further distributes the funds received to finance various events, and also sends grants to other countries in order to support writers in a difficult life situation.
The PEN club is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It unites professional writers, poets and journalists working in various literary genres.
The name of the club is an abbreviation of three English words: a poet, an essayist and a novelist, which eventually forms the word PEN.
The aim of the organization is to promote the creative cooperation of writers around the world and their unification to support "people of the word" who are persecuted. The organization supports writers who are in prison, experiencing financial difficulties, or ignored by political regimes, which club members define as repressive.
The PEN club was established on October 5, 1921 in London on the initiative of the British writer Catherine Amy Dawson-Scott and writer John Galsworthy, who became the first head of the club.
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