Poets will be to the fore when they come together with novelists, playwrights and artists to celebrate English PEN’s Writers at Risk programme and the individuals it supports at the organisation’s first modern literature festival in London on 2 April.

At the festival writers from England will present a new work – poetry, text, reportage, performance – in response to the writers at risk with whom they have been paired. Poets performing at the festival, at Rich Mix, Bethnal Green Road, include Andrew McMillan, in support of Ashraf Fayadh, Emily Berry (Raif Badawi), Emily Critchley (Mahvash Sabet), Mark Waldron (Zhu Yufu), Oli Hazzard (Enoh Meyomesse), Eley Williams (Tsering Woeser), and Harry Man (Maung Saung Kha).  

The poet and artist SJ Fowler, who has helped to curate the event, said in a blog that “It’s mawkish to speak of admiration, but come face to face with such will, such commitment to principle, and for it to be so global, to be almost everywhere on our planet, through these 30 human beings who share with us a profession …  Perhaps one can never really divorce oneself from the selfish question of whether I would continue to speak up in such circumstance, facing prison, torture, perhaps death. To risk my life and the lives of those I love. The festival will not be a maudlin affair, and no one is suggesting it will create powerful change, but it is important, to me and the other 59 writers connected, if nothing else.”

The festival takes place from 2pm to 9.30pm. Entry is free but signing up to membership of English PEN will be appreciated.