47th International PEN conference - from 6 to 9 May 2015

logos-penLjubljana, 19 January 2015 Dear Colleagues, We have the honour and the pleasure of inviting two delegates of your centre to our 47th International PEN conference, organised jointly by the Slovene PEN centre and the Writers for Peace Committee of International PEN at Bled in Slovenia. The conference will take place from 6 to 9 May 2015 in the PARK hotel in Bled. It will include two round tables, one organised by the Slovene PEN and the other by the WfPC. The themes of the round tables will be A Writer in a Society Reduced to Its Public Sphere? and Visible and Invisible Wars. You are welcome to participate in the discussions and/or prepare papers on the two proposed themes (papers should not exceed 3 pages). In order to organise the discussions and to prepare the conference material, the papers should reach us before 20 March in English, French or Slovene. Attached you will find documents prepared by members of our Board which are meant to provoke your responses on the issues of the themes. Our festival of literature for peace entitled Faces of Peace, which was introduced last year, will continue this year. Its second edition will take place on Friday, 8 May 2015, at Bled and several towns of Slovenia. The Festival will consist of two parts: in the morning, participants will be requested to go to different schools in the region and read their work and talk about PEN efforts for peace while in the evening there will be several literary events in libraries and other public places where participants will read their poems and prose works. In order to organise these events participants are kindly asked to send us their poems (3–4, maximum 90 verses) or prose (maximum 1.5 pages) not later than 20 March in the original language and in translation (English or French), so that we could translate them into Slovene and, if possible, also publish in a special booklet. Moreover, as part of our conference on 6 May, MIRA, the Women Writers’ Committee of Slovene PEN, invites the members of the Women Writers’ Committee of PEN International to a meeting during which a declaration on women’s rights will be discussed. A round table will follow titled Social Networks against Women? Please submit the summary of your speech by 20 March. As last year, an optional excursion will be organised on Saturday, 9 May (departure at 9.00, arrival to the hotel at 17.00). We shall visit the Triglav National Park, its beautiful nature and its rich cultural heritage. Those of you, who will join and need to stay an extra night at Bled, please indicate this in the registration form in order to make hotel reservations. You will be requested to pay the costs of the extra night at the hotel reception (73€ a single room). The excursion will be free of charge.  The conference fee for delegates, participants and accompanying guests amounts to 350 EUR and covers conference material, social events, transfer to the hotel from Ljubljana airport and Bled-Lesce railway station, hotel accommodation (three nights 6-9 May) and meals stated in the programme. Travel expenses have to be covered by the delegates, participants and accompanying guests themselves. Attached you will find the provisional program of the meeting as well as the registration form. We would kindly ask you to return the registration form duly completed before 20 March. If you need a visa, you should let us know as soon as possible, so that we can send you the guarantee letter needed for it. The official languages of the conference will be English, French and Slovene. Simultaneous interpretation from and into these languages will be provided. Looking forward to your positive answer, we are sending you our kindest regards. Yours sincerely, Tone Peršak                                                                                       Marjan Strojan Chair of the WfPC                                                                            President of the Slovene PEN