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A Three-Strikes Sojourn
“Dey, wake up. You have court today.”Oh man. Here we go. Judgment and sentencing. I was about to feel the entire weight of the drug war era justice system… More
Origami Heart
When I pick one up at mail call I feel it slide back and forth in the flimsy blue and red striped airmail envelope, a core of your words and so much emptiness enclosed. More
Why I Care
Doing outreach work in the Bayview-Hunters Point area of San Francisco can be fun, also dangerous, as the district has seen countless shootings of youth. I was working as… More
Gregory Rabassa
As one who works at spreading an awareness of what people are writing and saying in other languages through translation, I have long celebrated the labors of PEN American… More
Mavis Gallant, “August,” & What Cannot Be Said
This year, at the restaurant La Rotonde in Paris, I once again had lunch with Mavis Gallant and several other expatriate writers. I mentioned that when I returned to… More
PEN alarmed at recent crackdown on writers in China
PEN American Center today expressed alarm about an apparent crackdown on dissident writers in China. Three writers, Zhang Jianhong, Yang Maodong, and Chen Shuqing, all members of Independent Chinese… More
PEN Statement on the Murder of Anna Politkovskaya in Russia
PEN is appalled by the news of the murder today, October 7, 2006, of renowned Russian journalist and author Anna Politkovskaya, who was found shot dead in an elevator… More
Announcing the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction
Ron Chernow, president of PEN American Center, the nation’s pre-eminent association of literary writers and editors, has announced the establishment of the $10,000 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction.… More