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
The Pursuit of Character
Prologue If looking to the future can cause trepidation, what is this uneasiness I feel in looking back? Memory has a way of playing tricks on the mind, weaving minor… More
Left Behind
“Everybody lock up!” The guard barked over the intercom. “Get in your cells, now!” “Oh God, what now?” one of the girls asked, picking up her plastic bowl and gathering… More
A Neighborhood Rite of Passage
The game was walking the plank, only this game was enacted over a ten story silo in a abandoned chocolate factory, at one time the employment epicenter of the… More
Nature for the Nature Deprived
For those of us incarcerated persons who were avid outdoorsmen in our former lives, being locked-up is especially irksome. It’s not that I miss it; it is almost like… More
Kentucky’s Shameful Statistics
According to a report from the PEW Charitable Trusts’ Center on the States, Kentucky’s prison population increased in 2007 by 12%—nearly double the rate of any other state in… More
Voice of an Unheard Nation
On the eve of November 4, 2008, the entire world rejoiced in Barack Obama being elected the 44th President of the United States of America. The land of the… More
Funeral for a Dog
My bag in the back of the truck, the Antarctica bottles open, and we're off. David at the wheel of the red pickup, Felix in an open shirt and… More
Runaway Justice
Just a few miles from the courthouse the two Durham County deputies stopped at a diner and bought me a hamburger and milkshake, and from there the four-hour ride… More
Inmate Jane Doe
If one is to believe all the reports that the media broadcast or prints, one would think that 99% of all offenders were male. With the exception of a… More
PEN Appeal: Enrique Villicaña Palomares and Ramón ?ngeles Zalpa
April 15, 2010 Lic. Felipe De Jesús Calderón Hinojosa Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850 DISTRITO FEDERAL, México Fax: (+… More