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Wish You Were Here: The Perks of Being Banned
The humanities are in crisis, they say, and I am telling you this because the banning of books is another kind of restricted access: If you reduce the amount… More
Ayşe Berktay and Deniz Zarakolu Remain in Pre-Trial Detention
PEN International is deeply concerned by the refusal of an Istanbul court to release writer, translator, scholar and women’s rights activist Ayşe Berktay, who has been held in pre-trial… More
Welcome to the Indian World: Sherman Alexie on Surveillance
Sherman Alexie excoriated government and corporate surveillance during a wide-ranging discussion on our Google Hangout on the Air. More
On Banning Barbara Comyns’s Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
I believe that one of the surest ways to enrage those inclined to censorship is to present a fictional world that requires the reader to provide the fictional world's… More
Blogger and Journalist Given Suspended Sentences, Both Released
PEN International welcomes the release of blogger and writer Jean Laokolé and journalist Eric Topona. More
On Translating Athena Farrokhzad
[W]e are presented with a rigorously poetic exploration of migration, trauma, and intimacy, and although it may be seen as a document of a particular (immigrant) experience, Vitsvit is… More
Sharing Your Truth
Novelist and former PEN staffer Nick Burd kicks off our second annual Banned Books Month with some insight into the banning of his novel, The Vast Fields of Ordinary.… More
2013 Banned Books Month
Staring on Monday, September 23, PEN will begin posting essays from this year’s Banned Books Month, featuring PEN members, supporters, and staff—writers and editors of all backgrounds and genres—who… More
Two Poems by Frances Richard
there is no end / there is no end / one version of this only creates happiness / earth-movers across the street / festooned with colored ribbon while demolishing… More