Blog
Filter By:
Advocacy • Analysis • Blog • Commentary • Drama • Essay • Event • Feature • Fiction • Graphic Narrative • Interview • Memoir • News • Obituary • Open Letter • Poetry • Press Release • Profile
Browse By Series:
PEN Poetry Series • Prison Writing • The PEN Ten Interviews • Illustrated PEN • Pen Pals • The PEN World
Browse By Email Subscription:
PEN America News • Educational Censorship News • Works of Justice
The PEN Pod: On the Virtual Gala and the Beauty of Human Rights Work with Suzanne Nossel
“There’s something about individual cases of dissidents—these are human stories, faces, and individuals with families and life trajectories. When you can help them, it’s so concrete.” More
Charges Against Jimmy Lai, Arrest of Haze Fan are Dual Blows Against Press Freedom
“Jimmy Lai is being treated as an enemy of the state for the apparent ‘crime’ of speaking his mind about the city he loves." More
PEN America Condemns Raid on Florida COVID Scientist’s House
(New York, NY) — Florida law enforcement with guns drawn raided the home of a former state data scientist this week who said she was fired earlier this year… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Dolores Reyes, Translated by Maria Riillo
“I always try to find the music whichever way possible in what I’m writing.” More
Amid Tumultuous Year, PEN America Virtual Gala Celebrates Acts of Courage and Bravery by Those Who Stand Up to Oppression
"I’m heartened to think that this assembly of not always like-minded but always like-hearted writers and thinkers and advocates—that our assembly tonight points to our power.” More
Barack Obama Receives 2020 PEN America Voice of Influence Award, Re-Embraces His Identity as a Writer
“My politics, my public life, and my more interior writing life have never been that far apart," More
Poet’s Arrest Latest in Iran’s Crackdown on Writers
"The Iranian authorities’ detention of Amin Moradi—one of at least five members of the IWA jailed in 2020—demonstrates a pattern of baselessly portraying writers as anti-state actors in order… More
PEN America Blasts Saudi Arabia for Charging Women’s Rights Activist in Terrorism Court
“These recent developments in the case against Loujain Al-Hathloul only make more evident how bogus and blatantly retaliatory the Saudi authorities' case against her is." More
Cuban Artist Bruguera Detained and Held Overnight
"Bruguera’s arrest is just one more iteration of the Cuban government’s efforts to exert a vice-like grip over the cultural sector." More
“James Baldwin Didn’t Have to Go Out and Get Votes.” Obama Reflects on Race, Dialogue, and Disinformation in PEN America Interview
In an interview with PEN America, President Obama reflects on race, dialogue, and disinformation as the country confronts a new political future. More