The PEN Pod: Unpacking the Presidential Debate and Disinformation with Suzanne Nossel
“The worst thing in the world would be for the president to say something that would be disproven. That has been lost in this administration.” More
The PEN Pod: On Campus Free Speech and Devalued Black Lives with Eddie Cole
“Things are the same in the sense that college presidents are still grappling with how to deal with, say, the traditional white supremacists that disrupt the speech on campus.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Jenny Bhatt
“I’m brown, female, middle-aged, immigrant, late-bloomer, Indian, Gujarati, American, South Asian, wife, sister, daughter. All of these make me the writer that I am.” More
The PEN Pod: On Myths, Magic, and Intergenerational Narratives with K-Ming Chang
“There is so much that is inexplicable in myth. There’s so much magic and strangeness, and it doesn’t conform to conventional plot oftentimes—things turning into animals, or pumpkins.” More
2020 PEN/Benenson Freedom of Expression Courage Award: Marie Yovanovitch
Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch is the 2020 PEN/Benenson Freedom of Expression Courage Award honoree. More
The PEN Pod: On Attacks on Journalists, the Punishment of Professors, and Oscars Eligibility Requirements with Suzanne Nossel
“We have 200,000 Americans dead, and [President Trump] wants people to discredit the reporting on it—on the criticism of his handling of the pandemic, on the rifts between him… More
The PEN Pod: Resisting Political Violence and Dictatorship in Belarus with Hanna Komar
“I. . . and we as Belarusians fighting for our freedom, want the world to know that Lukashenko is not our president, because we didn’t vote for him.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Juan Felipe Herrera
“The poem can become the charter, the proclamation, the manifesto. It can contain key phrases, icons, master symbols, and condensed stories of the history before, during, and after the… More
#ArtistsxArtists: “Antibodies” by Mai Khoi and Hamed Sinno
The second installment of #ArtistsxArtists brought together Vietnamese songwriter Mai Khoi and Lebanese vocalist Hamed Sinno for the song “Antibodies.” More
The Path to Remembering
“I realized I wanted to write for women like me, women who want to read stories about dark, black ingenues; women who want to remember how ancient and divine… More
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Henry Reese, Board Chair of @cityofasylum and advisory committee member of PEN America's @AtRiskArtists was treated and released from the hospital after suffering a facial injury in today's attack. He writes:
"Salman Rushdie is one of the great authors of our time and one of...
NYT: Update on Salman Rushdies's condition via literary agent Andrew Wylie: “The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged." Rushdie on a ventilator and unable to speak. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/08/12/nyregion/salman-rushdie-stabbed-new-york?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxfs4h2Hza3LNE2wFl7RSWtLH_VbXaKViYN10xD2fQdZHdaUyX_x-z-IaJFBkQQOlrt6ClYtAMiIvqsj7eFIK6K_3fOJy9y72PC7-LOpwzbautBWCNDW7HfyCjmsjcFk0qZsydkWq2XNc2qvAQuVq04EqiuMrDpl5RDlUNCCN7KT4Gl4pboX9GxLf4gU9WOtbXCiC3oLPruJdL3gBTA7OX3h94m0j6dJDONlxPa_3LRQofcGWkqxGQyUzb9_vX8ttMtCSw7Z6srfNqgiOwN61xJg0FaZVvrDCsQWqJcNgg_cdqj7jKHGDld7yJNc&smid=tw-share
As we @PENamerica reel from the horrific news of the attack against Salman Rushdie—brilliant writer, free expression defender, & past PEN President—I can think of no better way to honor him than with his own incisive & urgent & words from our 2022 Emergency Writers Congress:
