What is Tomorrow Club?
The idea for the Tomorrow Club first developed in 1917, when Catherine Amy Dawson Scott dreamt of connecting young writers with their more experienced peers. This vision later inspired PEN International, the world’s largest network of writers today. With over a century of history, and centres in over 90 countries, PEN is a global network dedicated to defending freedom of expression.
Now, with a diverse community of emerging young voices in 58 countries, we have rekindled her dream, launching the Young Writers Committee and its web platform, Tomorrow Club, a constellation of young voices from around the world.
From Turkey to Serbia, Palestine to Myanmar, and Bangladesh to the USA, young people are rising their voices, shaping their societies and facing enormous challenges. They are neglected or marginalised, and in the worst cases, criminalised for their right to free expression. The Young Writers Committee and Tomorrow Club creates shared spaces to amplify their stories. To connect and create exchanges. To learn from and support each other across borders.
As societal fragmentation deepens along economic, social, and ideological lines, youth-led movements bridge divides and focus attention on a shared future. They have lots in common; many are reacting to wealth inequality, political corruption, environmental decline and regression of rights .
Many suffer from unemployment, lack of support or community, and the shrinking space for free expression, all of which leads to more demotivation, isolation, or escapism. We need to connect over our shared reality.
Autocracies and algorithms narrow our perspectives and we know little about the experiences of young people in other parts of the world, let alone those nearby with different views.
Writers and creatives strive to move people. People need to move each other towards defending shared rights. What better way to connect than through storytelling, and who better at opening up and connecting strangers than young storytellers themselves? Compassionate writers, journalists, poets, and writivists.
There is common pride to be found 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 Leader of Tomorrow Club and Board Member at PEN International
How Does Tomorrow Club Work?
Tomorrow Club is a cross-border platform for people under 35. Through the guidance of PEN International's Young Writers Committee acting as regional advisors, we will spotlight stories and experiences as expressed by young voices across different continents, drawing attention to their perspectives, pressing issues they face and the ways they cope with it all.
Our goal is to capture the youth-specific perspective and create exchanges. With our centres in 58 countries, we are developing collaborations, online workshops, and networking opportunities, as well as collective solidarity actions.
An “Empty Chair” section on our website will highlight cases of young people being prosecuted or silenced for speaking out. We will offer practical guides on how others can support them, from petitions and letter writing to creative solidarity campaigns.
We will highlight the young voices behind the stories through our podcast series 'The Brave Young Voices of Today and Tomorrow'
We will share curated resources and book recommendations from the spotlighted regions. Join our newsletter to receive this information and updates about our upcoming calendar.
When young people, already feeling uprooted from their future prospects are kept divided and silenced, progress is delayed. But when they connect locally and globally, peer-to-peer, they strive to repair what’s broken and offer remedies at the personal, community, and policy level.
“Imagining a better future is crucial for the time we are living in”
- Burhan Sönmez, President of PEN International
Brief 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, the initiative laid the groundwork for what would later evolve into a global vision.
This 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 nearly a century
In 2018, PEN International and PEN Norway collaborated to establish a young writers network in Türkiye, titled "İlkyaz" (Early Spring). Developed and managed by Ege Dündar and Irmak Ertaş 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 the Tomorrow Club and committed to youth engagement with strong support from Executive Director Romana Cacchioli and the staff at PEN International.
In the next congress, Ege Dündar, the project manager of Tomorrow Club, was tasked to lead a team, including Renaud Dossavi, acting chair of the Young Writers Committee, to reignite the initiative at PEN’s Congress in Uppsala, Sweden. Their efforts secured the support of PEN Centres in 46 countries.
At the following Congress, Dündar was elected the youngest member in PEN International’s history, and got to work on developing a dedicated youth network.
By October 2024, the Young Writers Committee was formally established by bright young voices from 58 countries. With Ayi Renaud Dossavi as acting chair and 10 young experts from 5 continents selected as the Steering Committee.
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 and administrative capacity for the web platform with support from Ammal Ahmed Haj Mohammed, Lars Gudmundson and Kiyya Baloch. The groundwork was laid for a youth-focused global platform to launch.