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Creativity’s Battles With Censorship

The West knows little about the cultural scene inside Iran today. Since the dawn of civilization until renascence, Iran has always been a great contributor to world's literature, art… More

2013 Literary Award Winners

PEN/Robert W. Bingham PrizeSergio De La Pava, A Naked Singularity (University of Chicago Press)PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardLeonard Mlodinow, Subliminal (Pantheon) PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the EssayRobert Hass,… More

2012 Literary Award Winners

PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged FictionSusan Nussbaum for "Good Kings, Bad Kings"PEN/Robert W. Bingham PrizeVanessa Veselka, Zazen (Red Lemonade) Runner-Up:Ben Lerner, Leaving the Atocha Station (Coffee House Press) PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in… More

From “Whereas”

WHEREAS I tire. Of my effort to match the effort of the statement: “Whereas Native Peoples and non-Native settlers engaged in numerous armed conflicts in which unfortunately, both took… More

Epic Endeavors

In the twentieth century alone, the Amphitryon myth has been adapted by a French novelist, two German playwrights, an opera composer, an anti-Nazi filmmaker, and Cole Porter. Have we… More

Ten Kliks South

Sanchez takes out a notebook and starts doing the math. “Divide it by nine Marines on the gun, and you, personally, you’ve killed zero point seven something people today.… More

Doris Lessing, 1919-2013

PEN American Center is greatly saddened at the news of Doris Lessing’s passing on November 17, 2013, at her home in London. Lessing was a distinguished member of English… More

Surrender, Oblivion, Survival

Tacloban is my city. I grew up directly facing the Pacific Ocean, on the Philippines’ eastern shore, which takes the brunt of the yearly monsoons. Geography and history provide… More