What is Tomorrow Club?

The idea for Tomorrow Club first developed in 1917, when Catherine Amy Dawson Scott started connecting young writers with older ones over tea. The vision developed to inspire PEN International, the world’s largest network of writers today. With a centenary history and centres in over 90 countries, PEN is a global network dedicated to promoting literature and defending freedom of expression. 

From a Club to a Community

Now, with a diverse community of emerging voices in 61 countries, we rekindled Scott's dream, launching the Young Writers Committee and the online platform, Tomorrow Club. We are developing collaborations, networking opportunities and exploring creative ways to support each other across borders and connect our communities.

On the website, we spotlight and archive reflections from bright young voices around the world, lead by local and regional representatives and colleagues.Drawing attention to reflections from people under 35 and the pressing issues they face.

The Vision

From Turkey to Serbia, Palestine to Kenya and Bangladesh to the USA, young people are raising their voices, shaping their societies and facing enormous challenges. They are brave for speaking out, often neglected and increasingly marginalised or criminalised for their right to free expression. Still, their courage is contagious and their urgency and dedication moves societies forward. They inspire hope in a volatile time when its much needed.

Tomorrow Club is a space to archive and amplify such voices. To connect young writers and creative witnesses across borders, create exchanges based on experiences and build solidarity.

Diagnosis

Divisions deepen on economic, cultural and ideological lines. Youth-led social movements bridge them, focusing attention on a shared future. As youths across the spectrum we struggle from wealth inequality to affordability,  armed conflicts to political corruption, regression of rights to environmental decline. We face similar obstacles and consequences for speaking up.

Many of us suffer from unemployment, lack of economic opportunity or community, and a shrinking space for free expression. This leads to more demotivation, isolation, escapism and anger. 

Autocracies and algorithms insulate perspectives and deepen divisions while most mainstream networks leave young voices out. We know little about the experiences and stories of peers in other parts of the world, let alone those nearby with different views.

What better way to connect than through storytelling, and who better at opening up and connecting strangers than storytellers themselves?  To facilitate learning, exchange perspectives and foster solidarity.

The Power of Stories

Stories, in fact or fiction, in literature as in journalism, lay the groundwork to understand each other and the world around us, realise our shared conditions; fostering empathy, inspiring connection and helping to build a shared reality. If they are allowed to be told and heard.

All indicators show freedom of expression is threatened around the world. PEN International has mobilised to defend this freedom for over a century, to support those at risk for speaking truth to power. Connecting over our stories under the guidance of this heritage forms a basis to act upon them collectively. A fine fabric to establish peer-to-peer, cross border solidarity.

We hope these efforts will open windows of personal experiences for learning and connection with countries and issues near and far, at a human level.

There is collective care to be found in a shared future and common pride in the word “youth.” Though it paints a massively diverse group with a single brush, that’s what is needed now; to get closer together in the face of shared challenges. 

Ege Dündar

Project Lead, Tomorrow Club

Board Member, PEN International 

Through Tomorrow Club You Can: 

1. Amplify your voice and story. We don't hear enough from young voices on mainstream media. So we make space for them and collectively share wide as we can with our worldwide network at PEN. 
2.  Be a guest on our podcast series  Brave Young Voices
3.  Discover the stories and  perspectives of young people around your age in different parts of the world. You can filter by topic and country on the articles section. We are developing new ways to connect with, collaborate and support one another. 
4. Join PEN and it's new Young Writers Committiee. You can join PEN's International's network for writers and free expression advocates with chapters in many countries. If interested, fill in this form and we can follow up on your request to join one of over 90 PEN centres.If your country is not currently represented, you may be eligible to join another.
5. Attend online and in person events and workshops to connect with young peers and authors, near and far.  We collaborate with various partners to platform young voices, including local and international organisations, book fairs and forums to share and expand our spaces.
6. Alert us to young people speaking up and facing risks against their right to free expression.We can explore safe ways to support them such as writing solidarity letters and compiling to amplify their cases as “Empty Chairs” 

➣We are proud to be guided by older peers and established experts across PEN International and sister organisations whom we can consult. Get in touch and some may be able to offer further advice, mentorship, guidance or support.

A 100 Year History

The idea behind Tomorrow Club traces its roots back to 1917, when Catherine Amy Dawson Scott first set it up to bring together young writers to connect with established literary figures. Supported by writers such as H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, George Bernard Shaw and T.S. Eliot at the time, the initiative laid the groundwork for what would later evolve into a global movement. 

That vision took form as PEN International, founded by Scott as a worldwide network of writers committed to promoting literature and defending freedom of expression. Today, it is the world’s largest association of writers. 

A youth-focused arm of PEN, known as Young PEN, was formally established in 1928 with philosopher Bertrand Russell as its first president. 

Fast Forward a Century 

In 2018, PEN International and PEN Norway collaborated to establish a young writers network in Turkey, titled "İlkyaz" (Early Spring). Developed and managed by Ege Dündar and Irmak Ertaş, with support from Hege Newth Nouri and Jenny Heradstveit the project enabled over 300 young voices from different backgrounds to safely connect with each other during a deeply polarising time in the country, with intense crackdowns on free expression.

In 2021, novelist Burhan Sönmez was elected President of PEN International. He placed focus and support in the spirit of Tomorrow Club and committed to youth engagement alongside Executive Director Romana Cacchioli and the board and staff at PEN International.

In the next congress, Dündar and Ayi Renaud Dossavi, acting chair of the Young Writers Committee, organised workshops to reignite the initiative at PEN’s 2021 Congress in Uppsala, Sweden. Their efforts secured the support of PEN Centres in 46 countries.

At the following Congress in Oxford, Dündar was elected the youngest member in PEN International’s history, and got to work on consulting with all the local centers in developing a dedicated youth network. 

By October 2024, the Young Writers Committee was formally established by  bright young voices from 60 countries with 10 young experts from 5 continents forming the Steering group. 

Building the Platform 

In 2024, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Secretary General of PEN Norway, became the youngest-ever Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Partnering with PEN International, its Young Writers Committee and Ege Dündar as Project Lead, PEN Norway stepped up enabling financial capacity for the web platform with support from Ammal Ahmed Haj Mohammed, Lars Gudmundson and Kiyya Baloch. In 2025, the groundwork was set for a youth-focused, global platform to launch.