The Intersection

“The Intersection” explores issues at the core of PEN America’s work—where literature intersects with human rights advocacy. “The Intersection” digs into the pressing issues of the day to consider how writers can engage free expression to help advance social justice causes.

Interrogating the Status Quo

In an era where powerful men are being toppled and long-held notions of “acceptable behavior” are changing, writers remind us that the rules governing language are also not free… More

On Difficult Conversations

As I look at the gulf between these bases of support, I’ve been thinking about “difficult conversation”—what that means, how it happens, and what we hope can come… More

Narrative Through Community

Our communities are being polarized and manipulated with competing notions of the truth…How do we address these divisions of outright truth and lie? Research provides a necessary starting point. More

Mayor of San Juan Carmen Yulin San Juan

This Is Not a Good News Story

What gets coded as what, and how, seems an almost week-to-week question posed in our media and discourse…There are tangible consequences to the language and narratives we use. More

Protestors topple confederate statues

Toward New Symbols and Platforms

Interrogating our national symbols is necessary to disrupting and dismantling power, but so is erecting new symbols and stories, or rather amplifying and holding space for stories that have… More

DACA Protest

The Invisible Work Around You

Those of us who are documented have a responsibility to put ourselves on the line, while still centering the stories and voices of those who are most at risk. More

Rereading & Rewriting Crime

We can respond to this crisis as a literary community by centering and seriously considering the work that casts prison, prisoners, and the prison state/industry in new light. More

Power to the People Requires Press Defense

We can do a better job of demonstrating how persistent journalism directly affects community change…here are a few ways reporters have used human stories to bring about substantive action. More