The German PEN Award is given to writer Irena Brezna

Brezna combines literary also journalistic elements in her reports and novels. The Writers’ Union recognizes its commitment to giving dissidents a voice given The German PEN Award.

1968 was fate for Irena Brezna. Only 18 years old, he fled from Bratislava, Slovakia, to Switzerland after the Prague Spring. She found herself in Basel and never left again.

She reworked and retold the story of his migration many times in his writings, first in essays also journalistic reports, then in novels. After the fall from the Soviet Union, Brezna gained a reputation. As a sensitive observer of events in Eastern Europe and a keen military reporter in Chechnya.

The 71-year-old has worked tirelessly for justice and freedom and given a voice to dissidents and persecutors in Eastern Europe. “

The German branch of the PEN authors’ association annually awards the Hermann Kesten Prize to people who defend persecuted journalists. Previous winners were Gunther Grass, Anna Politkovskaya, Liu Xiaobo, and Kang Dundar.

The award commemorates The German PEN Award writer and former PEN President Herman Chestnut, who fled the Nazis for the US in 1940. She volunteered there to save those who had escaped persecution, especially artists and writers. Since 1985, the prize, awarded 10,000 euros (11,300 US dollars), has been awarded to deserving winners who fought for justice.

Sensitive view of Eastern Europe

The award pays remarkable homage to Irena Brezna’s work as a journalist, reporter, and observer in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. Her literary reports and essays, inspired by her travels in Eastern Europe. Are linguistically solid and sensitive at the same time.

When Russian troops advanced into the Caucasus in late 1994 to bring the Chechen Republic back under Moscow control, Brezna began reporting from the conflict zone. Disguised as Chechen, She gives a first-hand look at the hitherto little-known horrors of the country.

“Her eyewitness accounts of Russians terrorizing Chechen towns and villages show readers. The physical and mental devastation this war caused in a way. That what he will do should not be forgotten anytime soon,” reports the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of his reporting from Sernowodsk, which received the famous Theodor Wolf Award in 2002.