About Uyghur PEN

 

Uyghur PEN Election 2025

The Uyghur PEN Center held its official election on April 16, 2025, at the Mir Publishing House office in Almaty, Kazakhstan. In addition to local members attending in person, participants from around the world joined the event online. A total of 24 members took part in the meeting. Read more >>

 

Uyghur PEN Board Members

 
Uyghur PEN Centre Conference in Crimea 19 July 2012.
 

Uyghur PEN old websites:

English: 
www.uyghurpen.org/about-pen.html

Uyghur Latin yéziqida:
www.uyghurpen.org/uyghurche.html

Uyghur Arab yéziqida:
www.uyghurpen.org/uy/index.html

 

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Archive for January, 2026

 

  • / Publications, Uyghur PEN Centre, Uyghur Poets, Uyghur Writers, Writers in Prison

    Bearing Witness to Imprisoned Souls

    Aziz Isa Elkun’s Reflections On the Publication of the Uyghur Poetry AnthologyImprisoned Souls: Poems of Uyghur Prisoners in China Book Launch Speech by Aziz Isa Elkun16 December 2025, Yunus Emre Enstitüsü, London Throughout history, humanity has witnessed profound suffering from oppressive rulers and inhumane wars. The most powerful poetry, like other forms of artistic expression, often emerges from those who have endured unimaginable hardship: exploitation, poverty, invasion or genocide. As a reflection of the Uyghurs’ social and political struggles, their poetry has consistently expressed their desire to live freely in their homeland. Themes of love, survival, and the resolute determination for a better future have always been central to their work.  Since completing my first major translation project, the anthology Uyghur Poems, published by the UK’s Everyman’s Library in October 2023, I have become deeply engaged in exploring Uyghur poetry further. My focus has increasingly shifted to the persecuted Uyghur poets. As I learned more about the ongoing persecution and extrajudicial punishments imposed on Uyghur intellectuals, particularly the mass detention, arrest, and disappearance of Uyghur poets, I became increasingly restless. The weight of these atrocities pressed upon me, and I felt a deep, unwavering need to bring their poetic voices to the wider world. The simple act of writing poems had led to their persecution, and I knew that their precious works must not be lost to silence. It became my mission to translate these poems and preserve the voices of those who are no longer able to speak. The knowledge that many of my poet friends are languishing in Chinese prisons has haunted me daily. Despite the challenges of obtaining reliable information about the detained and imprisoned Uyghur poets, I began my investigation in 2017. I began the painstaking task of collecting their poems from published books, magazines and online sources, […]