On D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover
What scandalized (and scandalizes) conservative forces and even many of Lawrence’s colleagues in the literary world was not only Connie’s adultery, but the author’s failure to condemn the same... More
On J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
These books have taught children to read, to think, to write, and to criticize, all hallmarks of free expression. (Harry Potter taught me how to read Portuguese. Quidditch is… More
Selected Poems of Hester Knibbe
There you sit / in the same skirt in which, waters ago, / you boarded the ship, but the dance / has drained from your feet. More
On Translating Hester Knibbe
There were openly false statements, lies that gave way to truths. There was often a little something indigestible in the poems, something to puzzle over, and this was what… More
War on a Lunchbreak
Not that I ever lay hiding // dying in a ditch, but if I had, I think that I’d / know much about dry grass, the incredible value of… More
Bleak Housing & Black Americans
The United States seems not merely to tolerate but actually to revel in inflicting barbaric human degradation upon prisoners—not just for months or years, but for decades and lifetimes... More
Move the Back of Your Heart Towards the Front of Your Heart
Let me show you pictures of the man / I was when I was // Other than the man / I am right now More
Banned Books Month is Coming!
September is all about banned books here at PEN American. We reached out to writers, editors, literary illuminati, and PEN staff to write about the banned books that matter… More
Support for the freedom to read with exclusive designs by Todd Parr, Mike Curato, Art Spiegelman, and more!
