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
The PEN Ten with Sorayya Khan
I’ve always believed that writing is a political act, a way to explore injustice, a place to contemplate complicity, forgiveness, and the possibility of a better world. More
“We Have Not Lived Through the Peak of Our Hardships”: An Interview with Andrey Kurkov
Nowadays, 80 percent of young authors write politically engaged literature, trying to touch upon very painful topics, the topics of refugees, immigrants, the topic of responsibility for the future... More
Any Place I’d Wanted to Be
In the reverie, it’s a socked in playground / in Douglas, Alaska—near the miner’s / abandoned wood, a pit where went a Chevrolet / in the early 1970s. A… More