It is a PEN International tradition to place an empty chair at public gatherings to commemorate those writers who are absent from our community due to imprisonment, exile or other restraints. This chair has been designed to commemorate Liu Xiaobo, a founding member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre and this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Liu was unable to receive his prize in person because he is serving an 11-year prison sentence in China
A quote from Liu Xiaobo (translated from Chinese into English)
This chair has been crafted for Scottish PEN by students and staff at Lomond School in Helensburgh, Scotland, with the generous sponsrship of Norwegian PEN.
