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Voices from Ukraine and Belarus Part I
Nobody has yet cancelled Joseph Brodsky's formula that a poet shouldn't interfere with politics, unless politics interfers with a poet. In the authoritarian Belarus there are all kinds of… More
Letter to Europe
to see the web that your rivers / have created, like lines on the / palm of a hand. From these, fol- / lowing the Rhine and the /… More
Two Poems by Cathy Park Hong
as a boy, my father used to trap / little brown sparrows, bury them in hot coal, / and slowly eat the charred birds alone / in the green… More
Tell Us What #FreeExpressionIs
1. In a tweet to @PENAmerican, finish the sentence"#FreeExpressionIs..." in 100 characters or less.2. Follow PEN on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. #FreeExpressionIs a right that every writer should enjoy. But… More
A Philosophy of Walking
In departures on foot there is always something final which is lacking from other forms of transport that make it possible to turn back, where nothing is irreversible. And… More
Ovid to His Book
Go on your way now, book, and speak for me / in places that I love, but cannot be, / saluting those whom I have come to meet /… More
A Freedom to Write Retrospective: Nasrin Sotoudeh
Each week leading up to the PEN Literary Gala and the conferrence of the 2014 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award on May 5, PEN will feature the story… More
Amitābha Increases Exponentially
At this point I am hit by a shocking revelation—a precise and probably objective perception of my own self. Of this presence called I. Thing of this earth. And… More
2014-2015 Board of Trustees
Board of Trustees 2014-2015. Peter Godwin, President More
Three Questions with Heather Christle
I do not believe in trying to keep the work original. If that happens—if such an occurrence is possible—I believe it is necessarily a byproduct of a desire to… More