History of PEN
PEN Ukraine was founded in 1989 and accepted into the International PEN in 1990. The first president of PEN Ukraine was Mykola Vingranovsky (1989-1993), later the organization was headed by Yevhen Sverstyuk (1993-2010). In 2010, with the election of Myroslav Marynovych, a human rights activist and publicist, PEN Ukraine began to conduct systematic literary and human rights activities in Ukraine and abroad. In 2014, Mykola Ryabchuk was elected president of PEN Ukraine, and in December 2018, Andriy Kurkov was elected. In November 2022, Volodymyr Yermolenko became the president of PEN Ukraine.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the organization had to redesign its main priorities which became:
- Informing international audiences about Russia’s war against Ukraine
- Documenting Russia’s crimes against Ukrainian media and culture
- Preserving the memory of Ukrainian journalists and cultural activists taken away by the war
- Documenting the experiences of the people of Ukraine at a time of the full-scale war
- Restoration of cultural life in Ukraine
- Support of Russia-damaged Ukrainian libraries
PEN Ukraine includes over 170 writers, human rights activists, translators, journalists, humanities scholars, publishers, cultural managers, playwrights, and screenwriters.
Since 2018, journalist and cultural manager Tetyana Teren has been the executive director of PEN Ukraine, and since 2025 – Maksym Sytnikov.
The activities of the organization are provided by the administrative team – professionals who initiate and implement PEN Ukraine’s literary and human rights projects.