The Many Voices podcast by Scottish PEN brings into focus voices that are often marginalised or silenced. In each podcast, we’ll hear discussions between writers involved in our Many Voices outreach project, readings, and a featured interview with a Scottish PEN member about the year-round work we do.

In this episode Jenni Calder looks back on 90 years of Scottish PEN and the role it has played defending writers under threat both in Scotland and across the globe. Many Voices writers Sarah Short and Eric Ngalle Charles discuss making space for more stories, reflect on their experience working with young people at HMP YOU Polmont, and share some of the exciting work that came out of this project.

Jenni Calder is an author, Scottish literary historian, and former President of Scottish PEN.

Sarah Short is a Glasgow based artist, specializing in writing for performance.

Eric Ngalle Charles is a poet, dramatist and novelist and a former Cameroon refugee. 

The podcast is hosted by Sasha De-Buyl Pisco and produced by Colin Fraser. Many Voices is funded by Creative Scotland.

Many Voices: The world is full of stories we need to hear”

The Many Voices podcast by Scottish PEN brings into focus voices that are often marginalised or silenced. In each podcast, we’ll hear discussions between writers involved in our Many Voices outreach project, readings, and a featured interview with a Scottish PEN member about the year-round work we do.

Today we catch up with poets Marjorie Lotfi Gill and Sepideh Jodeyri, who worked with International Women’s Group Glasgow North as part of the Many Voices project. Marjorie and Sepideh discuss leaving home, writing in exile, and the journeys we all share. We also hear from Elizabeth Reeder, who talks about the work of Scottish PEN Women Writers’ committee and the importance of making women’s writing more visible in the world.

Marjorie Lotfi Gill is an Edinburgh-based poet and founder of Open Book & Belonging Project.

Sepideh Jodeyri is an Iranian poet, literary critic, translator and journalist. After her works were banned in Iran, Jodeyri left the country and currently lives in Washington, DC, the United States.

Elizabeth Reeder writes novels, essays, and stories. She also teaches Creative Writing at University of Glasgow.

The podcast is hosted by Sasha De-Buyl Pisco and produced by Colin Fraser. Many Voices is funded by Creative Scotland.

Many Voices: Journeys Big and Small

The Many Voices podcast by Scottish PEN brings into focus voices that are often marginalised or silenced. In each podcast, we’ll hear discussions between writers involved in our Many Voices outreach project, readings, and a featured interview with a Scottish PEN member about the year-round work we do.

In this episode we catch up with Sarah Short and Alicia Quiñones at Dundee Literary festival, where the writers talked about their experience working with Apex Scotland and HMP YOI Grampian, the unique challenges women in the criminal justice system face both in Scotland in Mexico - and why building trust in the prison setting can be a huge task. We also hear from exiled journalist Abdulrahman Ezz, who shares his first-hand experiences on censorship, persecution and imprisonment in Egypt, following his coverage of the Tahrir Square protests in 2011.

Sarah Short is a Glasgow based artist, specializing in writing for performance. Sarah has previously worked with the Scottish Prison Arts network and, as part of Many Voices, led writing workshops with a group of women based at HMP YOI Grampian.

Alicia Quiñones is a Mexican journalist who has written widely on Mexican prisons and taught literary journalism in prisons.

Abdulrahman Ezz is an Egyptian political activist and journalist who has worked as a photographer, TV presenter and news reporter at Sasapost and Al Jazeera.

The podcast is hosted by Sasha De-Buyl Pisco and produced by Colin Fraser. Many Voices is funded by Creative Scotland.

Many Voices: Finding Worth Within Your Own Voice

The Many Voices podcast by Scottish PEN brings into focus voices that are often marginalised or silenced. In each podcast, we’ll hear discussions between writers involved in our Many Voices outreach project, readings, and a featured interview with a Scottish PEN member about the year-round work we do.

This week we travel to Orkney Library & Archive in Kirkwall to talk to writers Alison Miller and Ingun Christensen about their work with Orcadian writers, supporting literature in minority languages and weaving together multiple linguistic identities through writing. We also hear new poetry from some of the writers in Alison’s Orkney Voices writing group. Scottish Green Party MSP, Andy Wightman talks about the ongoing defamation case against him and what the current laws mean for free expression in Scotland. 


Alison Miller is the author of the novel “Demo”, which was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award. She has had poetry and prose published in anthologies and stories broadcast on BBC Radio Four. Alison, born and raised in Orkney, now lives there again. 

Ingun Christensen is a Faroese writer who has published 6 books and several short stories. Ingun was raised in a bilingual home with a Faroese mother and Danish Father.

Andy Wightman is a Scottish Green Party MSP and researcher best known for his work on land ownership in Scotland. He is the author of "Who Owns Scotland" and "The Poor Had No Lawyers".

The podcast is hosted by Sasha De-Buyl Pisco and produced by Colin Fraser. Many Voices is funded by Creative Scotland.

Many Voices: Recipe for a Good Storm

The Many Voices podcast by Scottish PEN brings into focus voices that are often marginalised or silenced. In each podcast, we’ll hear discussions between writers involved in our Many Voices outreach project, readings, and a featured interview with a Scottish PEN member about the year-round work we do.

In this episode writers Karen Campbell and Kerrie O’Brien discuss working with a writing group who have experienced addiction and homelessness supported by the charity Move On, the landscape of rough sleeping in Glasgow and Dublin, and how writing can help remove the stigma around issues such as homelessness and addiction. Some of the writers from the Move On group will read some of their work produced during the project. Following this, Nik Williams, the Project Manager at Scottish PEN talks about the impact of surveillance on the willingness of Scottish writers to write and research challenging issues and introduces Scottish PEN’s research on self-censorship in the age of big data. 

Scottish writer Karen Campbell is the author of six novels, most recently Rise and This is Where I Am, both published by Bloomsbury Circus. A graduate of Glasgow University's Creative Writing Masters, Karen also teaches creative writing.

Kerrie O’Brien is a writer and poet from Dublin. Her debut collection of poetry Illuminate was published by in October 2016, and she is the Editor of Looking at The Stars, an anthology of Irish writing in support of the Rough Sleeper Team of the Dublin Simon Community.

Nik Williams is the project manager at Scottish PEN and has been published in Index on Censorship, openDemocracy, The Herald, The National and CommonSpace.

The podcast is hosted by Sasha De-Buyl and produced by Colin Fraser. Many Voices is funded by Creative Scotland.

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