March 11, 2008 | PEN American Center | NYC

Dear PEN Member,

PEN's Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 11 at 5:30 p.m. in the PEN offices. PEN President Francine Prose will give her report on the year, followed by a presentation of the audited financial results for Fiscal Year 2007 and the announcement of newly elected Trustees.

One of PEN’s most important human rights initiatives this past year has been to rescue Iraqi writers, journalists, and translators whose lives are in danger because of their work. Our special guest at the annual meeting will be Ahmed Ali, an Iraqi journalist and translator whom PEN assisted in relocating to this country after he was targeted for death for working for several leading Western media organizations. Joining Ali for a discussion on life in Iraq for writers and translators since the U.S. invasion will be PEN Board Member George Packer, whose new play Betrayed (currently at The Culture Project), considers the plight of Iraqi interpreters who jeopardized their lives on behalf of Americans in Iraq, receiving little or no U.S. protection in return.

A reception will follow at about 6:30 p.m. Please RSVP to reservations@pen.org no later than Friday, March 7.



George Packer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq, which won several awards and was named by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2005. He has published two other works of non-fiction and two novels. His articles, essays, and reviews on foreign affairs, American politics, and literature have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Dissent, and other publications. He lives in Brooklyn.

Ahmed Ali worked as a journalist and translator for the major British newspaper The Daily Telegraph from 2003 to 2006, when he was forced into hiding for his coverage of the political situation in Iraq, for his cooperation with foreigners, and for his sharp criticism of the insurgency. Following the kidnapping and presumed murder of his brother-in-law, Ali and his family fled Iraq to Syria. PEN’s Larry Siems met Ali in Damascus in December 2006 and shortly thereafter initiated efforts to bring him and several other Iraqi writers, journalists, and translators living in hiding in Syria to safe havens in the United States