The highlight of this thought-provoking and moving display is the Empty Chair, which has lately been touring Scottish literary festivals, including the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh Radical Book Fair.
This specially crafted chair highlights the plight of writers internationally who are imprisoned, suffer horrendous torture, or are in hiding, simply for engaging in freedom of expression.

World famous Edinburgh writer and Scottish PEN member Alexander McCall Smith said: "PEN's support for writers in prison has been a lifeline for many. The Empty Chair symbolises that most powerfully, and I am delighted to have been able to support it."

Councillor Deidre Brock, Culture and Leisure Convenor for the City of Edinburgh Council , said: "The Writers' Museum has been proud to host Scottish PEN since 2005 and we are delighted to be displaying this fascinating and poignant Writers in Prison exhibition. Here in Scotland, we perhaps take freedom of expression somewhat for granted; this hard-hitting display brings home how different things are in other parts of the world, where writers and journalists have been incarcerated, tortured or even murdered simply for expressing their views."

As well as the Empty Chair, the exhibition also displays examples of some of the ingenious methods imprisoned writers have employed to smuggle their words to the outside world, such as toilet paper, cigarette papers and even bars of soap.

Jean Rafferty, Scottish PEN's WIP Committee Convenor, said: "This exhibition focuses on the campaigning of the WIP Committee who work to combat repression and to support individual writers. It is not a dry and dusty look at the principle of free expression, but shows the people who fight and suffer for the right to speak their minds."