Blog
Filter By:
Advocacy • Analysis • Blog • Commentary • Drama • Essay • Event • Feature • Fiction • Graphic Narrative • Interview • Memoir • News • Obituary • Open Letter • Poetry • Press Release • Profile
Browse By Series:
PEN Poetry Series • Prison Writing • The PEN Ten Interviews • Illustrated PEN • Pen Pals • The PEN World
Browse By Email Subscription:
PEN America News • Educational Censorship News • Works of Justice
Tom & Gerry
TOM: (reminiscing) River Lethe, baby. The dreariest task was a silent epiphany. Slooow motion. Even something like laundry had a purpose and a passion—as part of the plan. It… More
The Meridian
It’s obvious she’s wrong. When the men reach them, the men will kill them both, who cares if they’re supposed to be able to. They’ve killed others. The Man… More
Little Sunshine
BETH: Dad storming around the house, demanding to know who let chickens into the house. (Mimicking her father as she takes the shaker from her mother) Chickens are food,… More
The Marvel of the World
The running feet belong to the little boy in the drab tunic. He runs past them all, then stops and turns. He runs to Innocent and looks up at… More
Somewhere Between
A lone figure on the yard: an Orderly pushing a sheet-covered body on a gurney. The gurney hits a bump on the sidewalk. An arm pops out from beneath… More
Catherine Wagner: Two Poems
Robins and cardinals blurt between furrows of storm. / A way energy has of being. It can caress itself. More
The Stew of Discontent
Part of the perennial problem with the Texas prison system stems from an inherent comprehension deficit. To use an idea of Alexander Solzhenitsynts, it seems we’ve lost capacity for… More
Illinois Abolishes the Death Penalty
The governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, argued in 2007 that the money could be better spent on providing drug treatment or extra police, which actually prevent crime. Such an… More
Commissary Day
The unthinkable happens: They call for another shot. There are not even ten people in the hyena den to fill a shot. All of us are either stack-holders or… More