The Day of the Imprisoned Writer is an international day observed on November 15 to recognize and support writers who resist attacks on their freedom of expression and who stand up to censorship, imprisonment, harassment, and violence.
In 1981, the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International established November 15 as the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer. For more than four decades, PEN centres in over 100 countries use this day to mobilize global literary communities, release urgent reports on detained authors, and spotlight iconic 'focus cases'—writers arbitrarily imprisoned or facing draconian state censorship. From Soviet dissidents and Latin American journalists under military dictatorships to modern digital whistleblowers, poets, and investigative reporters, the observance underscores Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the fundamental right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.
