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50th Anniversary of International PEN

This year sees the 50th Anniversary of International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee. To celebrate their work over the last half century, the charity is presenting 50 emblematic cases illustrating where, how and why they have worked.

Following the success of last year's 26 Exchanges project, PEN is again collaborating with UK writer's association 26 on a creative project for Free the Word! Festival. 26 have randomly paired each of the 50th anniversary writers with a writer from 26, including Ruth Clarke, one of Temple's in-house translators. The brief: to write 50 words, no more, no less, inspired by the life and work of the writer they have been paired with. These 50 parcels of poetry, prose, meditation and agitation are being posted on the 26:50 blog, day by day, through the last day of the Free the Word! Festival in April.

You can read Ruth's poem and other at http://26-50.tumblr.com