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The PEN Ten with Michele Zackheim
If I write with a broad-brush stroke of transparent watercolor over a difficult, perhaps ugly portrait, I must be responsible about what I write, and not muddy the truth.… More
Molding the Violent Passion
Thai poet Mainueng K. Kunthee was shot and killed on April 23, 2014. He wrote his poem "Molding the Passion" in 2010 as the military started its ongoing crack… More
Poet Murdered; Concern Mounts for Safety of Writers
Six weeks after the murder of prominent "Red-Shirt" poet Mainueng K. Kunthee, who was shot dead on April 23, 2014, by unknown assailants, freedom of expression is severely… More
Leading Ukrainian and Russian writers come together to promote peaceful solution to Ukraine crisis
Prominent Russian author Lyudmila Ulitskaya, leading Ukrainian writer and scholar Aleksandra Hnatiuk, and Swedish PEN President and novelist Ola Larsmo come together this week to discuss the increasing number… More
PEN Calls on Turkey to Acquit Sociologist Pınar Selek
On June 11, 2014, Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals will deliver its final decision in the marathon trial of sociologist, writer, and feminist Pınar Selek. More
In Remembrance of Anthony Fleischer, Tireless Champion of South African Literature
The President of South African PEN died last week. PEN American Center President Peter Godwin and South African writer Margie Orford share their warm memories. More
The Future of Writing in English
In 2013, a Canadian company released the program ToneCheck that screens emails for potentially conflict causing language. Post-meeting anger: alert. Late night reach/bite toward a lost lover: don’t. More
Rita Duffy: Watchtower 2
From here it looks as if the whole country is spread under a camouflage tarp / rolled out by successive British garrisons / stationed in Crossmaglen. As teenagers we… More
Can you read my mind
Pride is truth's stiffest rival after shame and blood and everything else besides subtlety and re-written creation myths. Like that time I won my own heart in a dance,… More
How the Database is Powering the New World Economy
The other night I had a dream. The dream was a mountain./ with all the dimensions available to a mountain, including a full mineral inventory,/ cubic allotment of resources,… More