Featured Honorees
PEN America Literary Awards honorees have produced some of the most exceptional literary works of the past 50 years. Read interviews with or excerpts of work by featured authors and translators below.
Cross-Country Skiing
In November, before the snow, I’d got lost in these woods and spent part of a chilly night curled up in wet leaves. After it snowed, however, I could… More
A Good Dude
The whites are loosely arranged by hometown and run together as a car, or collective. It’s like a gang, but with no real structure. White power inmates largely call… More
Drums That Talk
Here was a messaging system that outpaced the best couriers, the fastest horses on good roads with way stations and relays. Earth-bound, foot-based messaging systems always disappointed. Their armies… More
Middletown
Anyway, he was magnificent. The first expressive gesture. From that little curl of the toes to all of the world’s bibles and languages, it’s just a matter of time.… More
Ivory Black
The interior eye / Opposite watching’s touch / In what is black white / Is by accident / The eye detaches / As it slips from itself / What… More
Through the Yellow Hour
Maude stands in the entrance, wearing a blue bonnet on her head, as well as a gas mask, a large backpack worn in the front, boots. She also wears… More
The Puppet Makers
The following is an excerpt from The Puppet Makers by Molly Crabapple, a 2011 PEN World Voices Festival participant. More
Selected Poems from The Undertaker’s Daughter
Terrified at a reading to read / poems about my fears & shames, // a voice in me said: Just / open your mouth. Now // I read about… More
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You
A lot of fault-finding non-Catholics run around saying that Catholics believe the Pope is infallible whenever he speaks. This is untrue. The Pope is infallible on only certain occasions,… More