Drowning in Apathy
Polar bears are the largest land carnivores, reaching mythic proportions: 12 feet high, 2,000 pounds. They have 42 ivory teeth, and their paws are 12 inches wide, with curved,… More
November 27, 2006 | Save Whomever We Can
The New RepublicA few days ago, the brother of my friend Osman was one of seven Sunni workers in a shop in a mixed neighborhood of western Baghdad who… More
National Press Club Remarks
Listen to this event (1:18:16)PEN American Center is delighted to be sponsoring this event with the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and the Association of American Publishers.… More
Burning From the Inside Out
Irish IndependentThere is a moment from the day after the World Trade Centre bombings that I still recall, though I have never written it down, nor told it to… More
Does It Work?
MIAMI—A few years ago, as I worked on a documentary film about torture survivors in exile from my native Haiti, I met a young woman who under questioning by… More
Are We Really So Fearful?
DURHAM, N.C.—It still haunts me, the first time—it was in Chile, in October of 1973—that I met someone who had been tortured. To save my life, I had sought… More
Places of the Heart
New York TimesIt took two years for me to be able walk to the end of my block and not feel a visceral shock each time I looked down… More
The Shadow World of a ‘Dirty War’
WASHINGTON—The gray-haired Caucasian woman. The five men in black whose black masks had openings only for their eyes. The older man, graying at the temples. The young woman with… More