Since inception, it has conducted campaigns and events supporting literature, fostering international understanding and defending freedom of expression.

Sydney PEN is an association of Australian writers and readers, publishers and human rights activists.

[1] As of April 2024[update], Zoë Rodriguez and Claudia Taranto are joint presidents of Sydney PEN, and there are six other members of the management committee.

[citation needed] Its Writers in Prison program selects urgent regional cases that feature public advocacy campaigns.

[citation needed] The award is named in the honour of Thomas Keneally AO for ‘his lifetime’s commitment to the values of PEN’.