PEN Club Liechtenstein

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The PEN Club Liechtenstein has been an autonomous PEN center of PEN International , an international association of writers , since April 1st, 1978 . The abbreviation PEN originally meant "Poets, Essayists, Novelists". After it was founded in England in 1921, the PEN established itself in many other countries. The international PEN congress in Sydney in December 1977 approved the Liechtenstein PEN Club. The founding crew consisted of 21 authors representing seven nations.

activity

The PEN is one of the best-known international authors' associations . The association was founded after the First World War . Initially, his focus was on promoting peace and international understanding, primarily through the involvement of many nations. Since authors were persecuted, suppressed and censored in many places , the PEN campaigned for rights and the enforcement of free expression of opinion . As a result, the Writers in Prison Committee was founded in 1960 , which is primarily concerned with documenting and publicly denouncing cases of suppression, censorship, imprisonment and murder of writers and publicists and thereby exerting pressure on the governments concerned. In order to effectively protect writers within their country from persecution, the Writers in Exile Network was founded in the late 1990s . It enables persecuted authors to find shelter in countries that are safer for them.

The routine activities of the Liechtenstein PEN Club include the readings that take place in the Vaduz “Schlösslekeller”, the publication of the “watch face” and the awarding of various prizes and grants. The club is also involved in the Writers in Prison Committee.

Dial

So far over 35 booklets have been published in which the club's activities are documented and texts are published.

The Liechtenstein Prize

Liechtenstein Prize Certificate (1980)

The Liechtenstein Prize for the Promotion of Young Literary Talents was first awarded in 1980. It was originally written out based on the abbreviation PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists). The call for applications invited young people to take part in the competition for the Liechtenstein Prize with poems, essayistic or narrative prose texts . As a result, he was mostly under the sign of poetry and once in the sign of drama. In 1980 the prize was awarded in three categories. The winners were Armin Gatterer and Hansjörg Quaderer for essay, Gerald Jatzek and Ingo Ospelt for poetry, Matthias Hoffmann and Kurt Lanthaler for prose.

The winners of the last few years were: Moritz Rinke , Mario Wirz , Janko Ferk , Waldemar Weber and Michael Guttenbrunner . The Liechtenstein Prize 2006 was awarded to the poet Nico Bleutge and the Liechtenstein Prize 2008 to the poet Michael Donhauser . In 2011 the poet Marica Bodrožić was honored with the award. The last time the award went to the poet Tom Schulz in 2016. The Liechtenstein Prize was originally endowed with 20,000 francs. The announcement is aimed at authors who write German, but it is not limited to any country. The Liechtenstein Prize is internationally renowned (see e.g. Fischer Literature Almanac ).

The Peter Surava Prize

In 1998 the PEN Club Liechtenstein created the Peter Surava Prize in memory of its deserving member Peter Surava alias Ernst Steiger . The prize was endowed with 25,000 francs. With this award, the PEN-Club Liechtenstein pursued the goal of preserving the memory of Peter Surava and honoring people who, like him, campaigned for the persecuted, disenfranchised and exploited, i.e. people whose actions were characterized by moral courage and a sense of justice. The award was intended to encourage those honored and to spur all those who work in the spirit of Peter Surava. The Peter Surava Prize was awarded for the first time in 1999, and in 2013 the prize was awarded to the Liechtenstein association nudos for the last time.

Prize winners:

Heinrich Ellermann grant

The founding crew of the Liechtenstein PEN Club included the publisher Heinrich Ellermann , a friend of the muses who supported musicians, artists and poets with a quiet hand throughout his life. The Heinrich Ellermann Scholarship was established in 2006 in memory of this extraordinary person. The scholarship is given preferentially to older writers with the aim of giving them the opportunity and the chance to get started again in peace. This scholarship is currently suspended.

Scholarship holders:

history

Paul Watzlawick gave the impetus to found the Liechtenstein PEN Club . At the beginning of 1977 Manfred Schlapp got to know Paul Watzlawick personally on a train ride. Both were members of the Austrian PEN Club. In the course of the conversation, Paul Watzlawick asked whether there was a Liechtenstein PEN club. "Unfortunately no!" Said Schlapp. To which Watzlawick is supposed to have said: “Then found one!” The first thing to do was to set up a representative founding crew of 21 members who, if possible, already belonged to the PEN Club, that is to say: to some PEN center. The names of the founding members: Roberto Altmann , CC Bergius , Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt , Heinrich Ellermann , Henry Goverts , Otto Grünmandl , Rolf Hädrich , Heinrich Harrer , Hans Hass , Werner Helwig , Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner , Hans Hellmut Kirst , Salcia Landmann , Thomas Luckmann , Valerie von Martens-Goetz , Adrian Martin , Leonhard Paulmichl , Manfred Schlapp, Luis Stefan Stecher , Jürgen Thorwald , Paul Watzlawick.

At that time there was still the Cold War, which also split the International PEN Club into two camps: those PEN centers that belonged to the western camp and those PEN centers that belong to the so-called East (= the Soviet Empire) represented. At that time, the International PEN Club was a highly political association and start-ups had to (and have to) be sanctioned at the International PEN Congresses, which take place every year!

President

Honorary President

Current presidium

Members of the Liechtenstein PEN Club

(As of October 2014)

List of German-speaking PEN centers

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Liechtenstein PEN Club -. Retrieved on May 29, 2018 (German).
  2. ↑ Liechtenstein PEN Club -. Retrieved on May 29, 2018 (German).
  3. ^ PEN Club Liechtenstein - Chronicle. Retrieved on May 29, 2018 (German).
  4. ↑ From: Manfred Schlapp looks back. Dial 35 and homepage of the Liechtenstein PEN Club October 27, 2013.