Daniel Gorman is director of English PEN, a human rights organisations that champions the freedom to write and read, and which is part of PEN International, a worldwide writers’ association. Prior to this, he was executive director of Shubbak, Europe’s largest festival of contemporary Arab culture, and co-founder of Highlight Arts, which organised UK-based international arts festivals and events, working with writers in Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
Every morning I do the usual – check my emails and calendar to assess what I’ll need to focus on that day and spend around half an hour reading up on PEN-related news regarding freedom of expression in the UK, and literary highlights from the day before. As we work at the intersection between literature and human rights, that can take me from reading up on specific aspects of UK legislation, to seeing who has published what, to doing background reading on a writer at a moment of risk.
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