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Thrity Umrigar | The PEN Ten Interview
Because what I’m most interested in is examining the systems and forces that create divides between people, those power dynamics that separate us. More
C Pam Zhang | The PEN Ten Interview
Like language, food is essential and theoretically accessible to almost anyone. The real question is which culinary voices are permitted, celebrated, amplified, valued. More
Dailihana Alfonseca | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
Believe in yourself enough to bet on your journey as a writer and try not to let the pressures of wanting to publish alter the story you are attempting… More
Ren Arcamone | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
In writing “Allen”, I wondered what might happen if the invisible housemate took up even more space inside the relationship. More
Isle McElroy | The PEN Ten Interview
It can feel amazing to be taken care of, to be known, but it can also feel limiting if one is shown things about oneself that are difficult to… More
Mengyin Lin | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
Every person’s reality is different from another’s, even from those who are closest. How do we move forward? How do we think about the future without overlooking the present? More
Sam Sax | The PEN Ten Interview
I think in that same way that every poem teaches you how to read it, every poem you make teaches you how to make it as you’re writing. More
Lisa Wartenberg | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
I was interested in the stories young girls are told, and how wildly violent these can be –– reflecting, of course, the atrocities of the larger landscape. More
Verity McKay | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
A woman pushed to the brink by the pressures of every day life in the wake of carrying around an awful secret for far too long. The awful secret… More
2023 Emerging Voices Fellows | The PEN Ten Interview
The 2023 Emerging Voices Fellows provide insight into their creative processes, how they’ve developed as writers, and what inspires their literary practice. More