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
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape
Lauret Savoy is a finalist for the 2016 PEN Open Book Award. This excerpt from her book of interconnected essays traces memory, geology, and human history. More
Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey
Beauty is the ultimate democracy, because a beautiful thing, particularly if it exists in nature, belongs to everyone. More
Bastards of the Reagan Era
Reginald Dwayne Betts's collection of poems, a finalist for the 2016 PEN Open Book Award, turns a critical eye to the harsh realities of American society and its treatment… More
Forest Primeval: Poems
A series of poems from Vievee Francis's poetry collection, Forest Primeval, a finalist for the 2016 PEN Open Book Award. More
Turkey: Court decision to close journalists’ trial to public undermines right to fair trial
As the trial of Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül is due to resume tomorrow, a decision by the Turkish court to close their trial to the public… More
Angola: Pernicious pursuit of the Luanda Book Club
PEN is concerned at news that 17 Angolan activists, known as the Luanda Book Club, were sentenced to between 2-8 years in prison and fined 50,000 kwanza (around 300… More
Free Expression Digest: Thurs., March 31
17 book club members convicted in Angola, Canadian judge orders VICE journalist to hand over digital messages, Egyptian author-journalist Ahmed Naji to receive PEN award, and more More
PEN America to Honor Jailed Egyptian Novelist Ahmed Naji with Freedom to Write Award
PEN America will confer the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award upon imprisoned Egyptian novelist and journalist Ahmed Naji at its annual Literary Gala on May 16 at the American… More
The Hague: Solitary confinement of journalist hugely disproportionate
The decision by the War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague to jail French journalist and writer, Florence Hartmann, in solitary confinement is a hugely disproportionate response to her conviction,… More