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Public Lives/Private Lives
I spent my childhood in socialist Romania. In 1983 I learned that the two most dangerous objects in our household were my father's air-gun and his typewriter. A presidential… More
Public Lives/Private Lives
I believe that one of the most problematic and fascinating conflicts of our time is the relationship between our intimate beliefs and our public life.How do our convictions give… More
Chiori Miyagawa on Public Lives/Private Lives
(Circa 1956, Nagano, Postwar Japan)There was something suspicious about the death of Yokochi City’s mayor’s daughter. It was a nagging doubt that began when Kazuo saw the obituary in… More
On Public Lives/Private Lives
Pausing Outside a House Santiago, Chile 2005Here, where a ruin longsto be a house, and a houseto be left to ruin. Where men blindfolded studentsand pushed them downthe basement stairs. The… More
PEN Denounces Detention of Jamyang Kyi
Writers from Canada, the United States, and China expressed concern today about reports that Jamyang Kyi, a prominent Tibetan writer, reporter, activist and singer, has been detained in Qinghai… More
V.A. Nurse to Receive 2008 PEN/Katherine Anne Porter First Amendment Award
PEN American Center has named Laura Berg, a Veterans Administration nurse who faced a sedition investigation after writing a letter to the editor of her local paper criticizing the… More
Yang Tongyan to Receive 2008 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award
PEN American Center today named Chinese dissident writer Yang Tongyan, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence, as recipient of its 2008 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. More
On Public Lives/Private Lives
They built a prison whose outer boundary was surrounded by a wire fence where some of the most beautiful poems of the nation’s leading poets had been written, by… More
Zhu Yufu Receives Tougher Sentence After Re-Trial
Nine months after trying and sentencing internet writer and activist Zhu Yufu to two years in prison for “obstructing the police from carrying out their public duty,” a Chinese… More
Billy Collins Reads Shi TaoŸ??s Ÿ??JuneŸ? as Part of Free Expression Poem Relay
As the Olympic torch reached the U.S., PEN American Center today released a recording of former U.S. Poet Laureate and PEN American Center Vice President Billy Collins reading imprisoned… More
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