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Lessons for Writers from RightsCon
Human rights activists, technologists, corporations, and foundations came together this week in San Francisco at RightsCon, the leading U.S. conference on human rights and technology. PEN American Center joined… More
Two More Murders of Journalists Highlight Need for Effective Measures to End Impunity
Last month, two more journalists were found murdered in Mexico, a country infamous for attacks on the press. PEN International released the following statement on their deaths and the… More
Betrayal–Past–Tony
I met Tony when I was nineteen. I was wild-eyed and wide open, looking for love and finding nothing but one night stands in the back seats of random… More
Cultivation
Burlap sack snaps in the windagain, the turn-rows grow longer.Along the way, days become bygones—dandelions dancing in the breeze.Knees dig into loose soil,toiling hands peel away a husk.Dusk meets… More
Air Pressure
I’ve seen wind go mad / in the skies of Arkansas; sticks / like straw, stuck through plumb... More
An Ordinary Prison
Peer into a prisonariumWe travel in a fish bowlPut your ear to the glass and hearA mumbled roar with shrill highlightsCardsharks hunched over scores and crumbsSlapping cards and grunting… More
Cold Spring
Cold spring and a redwing blackbird. / Norway maple in a litter of seed keys. / Inconvenient, the needs of the soul. // Cold spring. Fresh paint on a… More
PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature Marks Tenth Anniversary, April 28-May 4, 2014
A Weeklong Series of Readings, Debates, Performances, and Workshop Celebrates Writers Who Have Taken Artistic and Political RisksParticipants include Adonis, Boris Akunin, Martin Amis, Lydia Davis, Timothy Garton Ash,… More
The PEN Ten with Jimmy Santiago Baca
What is the responsibility of the writer? To toss out like old rotten salad the yearning for fame and money and get busy fighting for human rights and protesting… More