Why We Need Stories: A PEN Ten Interview with Sophia Shalmiyev
"The kind of writing I believe we need more of is jagged, way stranger, and structurally embodying the thinker, the visionary, the hermit, and the loudmouth." More
Celebrating Pride Month 2019: A Roundup
In celebration of Pride Month, PEN America has curated a selection of the best poetry, interviews, readings, and more by LGBTQIA+ writers. More
“I Started to Write the Way I Needed To”: An Essay by 2019 Emerging Voices Fellow T.K. Lê
"There is no time left to be small. This year, I took a risk: I called myself a writer, and I started to write the way I needed to." More
“We Cannot Help but Feel Sorrow”: On Commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre
It is illegal to discuss the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China, which is why it is important that people of conscience around the globe remember this day. More
Resurrection Rock
it’s true we called them pigs // said we hated them / feared them // said fuck them / when they weren’t around // I guess that was the… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Poet Brenda Shaughnessy
"Just like all politics are identity politics, and just like the personal is political—all poems are love poems, all poems are political poems." More
Two Poems by Ariana Reines
Also / True was that I had not been fucked correctly // In what was starting to feel like a long / Time. I used the apps but did… More
Highlights from the 15th Annual World Voices Festival
This Festival explored the profoundly complex and challenging issues involved in this dissolution of the public and the private in more than 70 events. More
Two Poems by Deborah Landau
Do what you want / and now. // Soon laid deep beneath / the flimsy weeds we’ll be More
Works of Justice: Author and Advocate Andrea J. Ritchie on State Violence Against Women of Color
In this Works of Justice interview, Giselle Robledo discusses state violence against women of color with Andrea J. Ritchie, author of Invisible No More. More