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Blood Feather
As Marcia does the dishes, she hears her daughter call from upstairs. “Mom, Mo-o-o-m . . . ” She races up but Ruthie isn’t in her room or even… More
On American and European Relations
There is no doubt great opposition among the citizens of Europe to the Iraqi adventure. But while the opposition to that war may not be as great in the… More
We Are All Torturers Now
At least since Watergate, Americans have come to take for granted a certain story line of scandal, in which revelation is followed by investigation, adjudication and expiation. Together, Congress… More
The Torturer General
It seems surreal: The president's nominee for the highest legal position in the land is a proponent of torture. In his notorious Jan. 25, 2002, memorandum to Bush, Alberto… More
November 24, 2004 | A Very Haitian Story
Miami—On Sunday, Oct. 24, United Nations troops and Haitian police forces launched a military operation in Bel-Air, one of the poorest and most volatile neighborhoods in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.… More
We’re in the Process of Losing Our Country
Was the Wednesday August 4 PEN Club meeting, during which several writers read texts, a demonstration against George Bush or a position-taking in favor of John Kerry?The PEN Club… More
Terrorism, Intellectual Freedom, and the Patriot Act
AMY GOODMAN: Salman Rushdie's book Midnight's Children, published in 1981, won the Booker Prize and brought him international fame. But it was his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, that… More
Campaign for Reader Privacy Press Conference
I am here today on behalf of the 2,700 writers who are members of PEN American Center, and many thousands more professional, semi-professional, vocational, apprentice, and recreational writers who… More
Reading Is a Prime Defense Against Assault on Our Rights
As a child, one of my favorite novels was Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451." Its subject is book burning — 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which books catch… More
Liberty’s Language
NEW YORK - As the ultimate guardians of language and its complexity, writers have always felt the need to deal with the great crises of their time. In those… More
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