Break Out: An Interview with Kaveh Akbar
A conversation with Kaveh Akbar, who will be performing Terry Hedin’s “El Reno” in our “Break Out” awards celebration, about the privilege and responsibility of performing another person’s work. More
Break Out: An Interview with TheaterLab’s Lanie Zipoy
A conversation with Lanie Zipoy about her curatorial process for our 2020 “Break Out” awards celebration, the challenges of organizing a digital literary event, and finding connection amidst isolation. More
PEN America Prison Writing Award Winners: 2020
Perhaps now, more than ever, the work of this contest is needed: to help melt calcified perceptions of who is incarcerated, to uplift the incredible literary voices stifled by… More
Prison Writing Committee
Our PEN America Prison Writing Committee is a group of dedicated volunteers whose primary task, among other engagements, is mining over 1,200 entries per year to judge the annual… More
Breakout: Voices From the Inside
Featuring award-winning prose and poetry from the 2015 PEN Prison Writing Contest, read by Khalil Cumberbatch, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Siri Hustvedt, Mitchell S. Jackson, Dawn Lundy Martin, Jeffrey Toobin,… More
PEN Applauds Experimental Funding for Inmate Education
Courses in education that build skill afford the only hope to change the course of direction for many caught in the downward spiral of these inhuman warehouses where people,… More
Justin Torres Reads “Letter to My Grandnephew” by Christopher Myers
In this excerpt from Breakout: Voices from the Inside—A Celebration of the PEN Prison Writing Program 2014, Justin Torres reads “Letter to My Grandnephew” by Christopher Myers. More
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The #PENWorldVoices Festival begins this week!
In line with @PENamerica's theme this year, Power to the People, the stories in this lineup of speakers possess the capacity to challenge misconceptions, reimagine new worlds, and instill hope.
https://bookshop.org/lists/power-to-the-people-a-2021-world-voices-festival-reading-list/
TOMORROW: Join us for a virtual event at 11AM ET on the free expression situation in Crimea. Hear from @jamiemfly, @AKurkov, and others on the media landscape and journalists who have been persecuted for their work. Register: https://pen.org/event/free-expression-in-crimea.
DREAMing Out Loud playwrights will read their in-progress plays w/ @NYTW79 & National Queer Theater on May 20, part of @PENworldvoices. Sign up below to join them.
Proud to support @PENamerica World Voices Festival. #PENWorldVoices https://on.nyc.gov/3y0paUx
