PEN American center

As the glittering PEN awards ceremony came to a close on Tuesday, a set of cartoons flashed onto the screen. At the end of the night, postcards were handed out to members of the audience bearing the same cartoons. The pictures all told aspects of the story of a journalist from Azerbaijan. Khadija Ismayilova had just been presented with PEN’s Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write award – in absentia, since she was unable to attend the ceremony herself.