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
Confessions of a Penitentiary Death Dealer
"I was 21 years old and the last thing I was interested in was this, the last article I read before tossing the newspaper in my trash." More
Triple Sessions
"I grew up at perhaps the tail end of the “spare the rod, spoil the child” generation, so violence was normalized and mitigated with life lessons." More
Two Birds, One Stone
"Brady's toes squirm in the sand. His eyes stare downward at the shifting grains, barely noticing the warmth seeping into his feet." More
Where the Wild Things Are
"I believe we are defined more by what we have done than by what has been done to us. In that sense, we are more robust than those that… More
Poker Face
"He would sit me at the table right next to him during his weekly poker games with the boys and teach me all about my poker face. I never… More
Self Portrait as State Property
"Eleven A oh six seven one they call as the boy not quite a man / Moves further down the line like a lamb in a slaughterhouse" More
First World Problems
"Better take a seat, Future Self, or have you remembered? Farley died last night." More
I’m Here for You
"You were bigger than life, Pop! You pushed me and said I can do anything in this life. I can do anything." More