The Iraqi PEN Club: Writing Through Rupture

The Iraqi PEN Club stands as one of the country’s enduring literary institutions. Founded during a period of political transformation, it emerged as a gathering place for poets, essayists, translators, and thinkers committed to freedom of expression and the preservation of literary culture. In times marked by censorship, exile, and fragmentation, it sought to affirm the ethical responsibility of the writer and the dignity of the written word.

Beginning in 2005, the poet Amal Al-Jubouri worked persistently to encourage PEN International to accept Iraq as a member of this historic global organization—established even before the founding of the United Nations. At a moment when Iraq was experiencing sectarian violence and intellectual displacement, this effort was not merely institutional; it was existential. Iraqi writers were scattered across borders, and the idea of a national literary body required both vision and courage.

In 2007, while Baghdad was engulfed in civil war, Damascus became a temporary refuge for many Iraqi writers and artists. There, Amal Al-Jubouri organized and supported the first conference of Iraqi writers in exile. The gathering provided a free and open space to discuss the formation of a preliminary Iraqi PEN body that could be presented for a vote at the PEN International Congress in Senegal later that same year.

Although she played a central role in convening the conference and facilitating dialogue, Amal declined nomination for the executive presidency during the internal elections. Instead, she accepted election to the Peace Committee, affirming her long-standing commitment to cultural diplomacy rather than institutional authority. The poet Ali al-Shalah was elected president, and the short story writer Hamid al-Mukhtar became secretary-general.

Later that year, Amal Al-Jubouri, Ali al-Shalah, and Hamid al-Mukhtar traveled to Senegal to attend the PEN Congress. There, following Amal’s address representing Iraqi writers and intellectuals, Iraq was unanimously accepted as a member of PEN International.

The story of the Iraqi PEN Club—its challenges, negotiations, and aspirations—remains part of a larger unpublished memoir that traces Amal Al-Jubouri’s intellectual and cultural journey. It is a story not only of institutional formation, but of literature’s insistence on surviving war, exile, and silence.

Further reflections on this chapter of Iraqi literary history will appear in forthcoming essays.