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
Quiet Racism
Quiet RacismNight smiles, walls carved with namesdead and dying, dates past and present,crowding into one, petrified in ageless shit.Silence support the ceiling. The blackhole we see into to seeis… More
Methamphetamine Trap
The brilliance of diamond clear rocks/ Sparkle in a bent heirloom spoon/ A cracked cup of tepid water/ And a small bit of cotton fluff More
Michelle Sloan: My Little Girl
I could feel you growing in me/ with every little heart beat/ you got stronger and I got weaker/ You were made from love/ At least I loved your… More
A Shadow in the Dark
Does one have to be or leave to have. Is it that you must be thought of, done for, in order to do with. Must it be… More
numbers game
numbers gameOn May5,1988, CDC #60840,1 of California Medical Facility blues and formerly1 of1700 Northern Reception Center greens, awoke, lifted his head off his6318L, eased from between the2 white sheets… More
Sonnet—To The Moon
Sonnet—To The MoonIn temperance and faith hast thou for yearsWatched o’er me. Thou hast smiled whene’er I gainedSmall, human gains and bitterly wept tearsOf light to save me when… More
Peter Griffith Andruskiewicz: The Big Yard
The Big Yard(Act 1)Yea! it is summerin the Big Yardand our prior shakedownby fisted metal detectors gohumming for midnight muderers’ murmurings.Yea! it is summerin the Big Yardwith the faces… More
Strip Search
William Miller88A043 B-5-26Box BDannemora, NY 12929Strip SearchI am standing nudeto the leftof a half open windowin the middle of Octoberand the cool airchills melike an artificial kiss.I am being… More
A Man Is Missing
A man is missing, he’s been taken away;Where is he gone and what did he say.Where did they take him and did they say why;As he was leaving I… More