Blog

Filter By:

AdvocacyAnalysisBlogCommentaryDramaEssayEventFeatureFictionGraphic NarrativeInterviewMemoirNewsObituaryOpen LetterPoetryPress ReleaseProfile

Browse By Series:

PEN Poetry Series •  Prison WritingThe PEN Ten InterviewsIllustrated PEN • Pen PalsThe PEN World

Browse By Email Subscription:

PEN America NewsEducational Censorship NewsWorks of Justice 

Untitled

Mr. Donald Powell133749Lock Box 500Ionia, Michigan 488462-27-76I would like to make this statement known to the general public of the world. That while incarcerated at the Michigan Reformatory of… More

Follow Rozewicz

Follow Różewicz". . . at twenty-fourled to slaughter,"he recites, smokes his thick cigarettes,his tenor voice betrays him, his enduranceall these years, he utters so many thingsabout days gone and… More

3:45

She says / something like this: / A torch, a line of torches, men / in plumber uniforms, in laundry jackets More

June Journals 6-25-88

The check I bounced was for $208. My buddy, Alfonso S., did the design and layout for Victor Martinez’s first book, Wrecking Them Back. I feel like telling Vic… More

The Lie

You want to know,Would I kill a child,staring with innocent eyes,the embodiment of defenselessness?I’d murder man, woman, or child,no difference to me.Hate makes no distinction.Not because I’m bitterbeing here… More

Last Call

Last CallDays skipped awaya kid chucking stones across water,happy years gone the way of youth;moved from farm to townand on down the streetto city lights and cheap hotels,dark diveswhere… More