We read for two primary reasons: pleasure and insight.
Pleasure draws us in. Insight sharpens how we see the world, gives us language for what we might feel but have not yet named. This year, PEN America Florida built its statewide literary programming around a guiding idea: pleasure and insight should frame our events and literary program partnerships.
At Authors’ Evenings, readers joined Steven Ujifusa, Todd S. Purdum, André Aciman, and Craig Mundie for conversations that moved from World War II and the history of television to artificial intelligence.
PEN America Florida Director William Johnson spoke with debut novelist Alejandro Heredia at Books & Books in Coral Gables about crafting characters, and with music writer Christian John Wikane about the power and history of disco culture. We hosted author Kristen Arnett at the Fern and Fable Bookstore in Ormond Beach for Pride Month and sponsored an event produced by Stonewall National Museum and Archives with journalist Jonathan Capehart.
In Miami Beach, we held our first salon-style gathering with writer Robert W. Fieseler, who led an intimate discussion of American Scare: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives. PEN award-winning novelists Javier Fuentes and Torrey Peters spoke candidly at the 2026 Miami Book Fair about what public recognition does to a writer’s process. And Johnson joined Dr. Ibram X. Kendi for a dialogue produced by the Lynx Bookstore on his new book, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age.
We look forward to hosting more events in the seasons ahead and hope you will join us. Please sign up for our PEN America Florida newsletter.
