The PEN Ten with Safiya Sinclair
I think the responsibility of the writer is to say something true, to give voice to untold histories, to say something sincere about personhood, to speak from the margins… More
The M Word Stories: Hussein Rashid
In America, people are always finding ways to try to silence things they don’t understand. Right now, it’s religion; before, it was race. More
Dylan Edwards on “Fun Home”
Fun Home gets banned for the same reasons it resonates: It tells queer people we exist, and that oppression can kill us... More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Alex Gino
Writers both expose what is happening in society and give escape from it. We share reality and explore alternatives. More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Juno Dawson
I see myself as a storyteller. I think it’s a universal language we all speak, and stories have the power to unite us as a race. More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Meg Medina
It’s our job to name the human experience so that we don’t forget the ugly and the truly beautiful. It’s our job to write the stories that invite a… More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Coe Booth
I think our responsibility is to tell the truth. We’re writing for discriminating readers who don’t want to read stories that water down their experiences or belittle the intensity… More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Discretion is acceptable. Sensitivity is important. But censorship has no place in our public life. More
“The Saddest Angriest Black Girl in Town” and “Your Black Friend”
Your white friends recommend a lot of black authors to your black friend and he’s starting to feel like they’re trying to “out black” him... More
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