The PEN Ten with Carmen Maria Machado
Government censorship is never acceptable. Private organizations have the right to dictate what sorts of ideas they want to host or sponsor, and should be held accountable for those… More
The PEN Ten with Natalie Graham
I find myself thinking the responsibility is to reveal a thing the most beautiful way. Beauty is a trap, but I can't think of what else the writer is… More
The PEN Ten with Carlina Duan
There is a responsibility that I owe to myself, and to a lineage of my loved ones and those who came before us to actively resist, to protest, to… More
St. Petersburg PEN: “This City is Ours!”
The main challenge that St. Petersburg PEN faces is that the Russian authorities have currently set themselves the task of "provincializing Petersburg.". . . More
The PEN Ten with sam sax
I do have more to say about what a good writer is and ought to do, which I think carries many of the same qualities as a good person.… More
The PEN Ten with Laura Swearingen-Steadwell
At its heart, the emotional truth of a poem matters the most. In nonfiction, a fact is a fact is a fact. The end. More
Power Must Be Reasonable: A Conversation with Alexander Sokurov and Kirill Serebrennikov
A government that has power has a definite responsibility. And when the authorities become aware of their own power, a great number of temptations begin to arise. More
The PEN Ten with Jimin Han
I think about how censorship of writers and other creative artists is one of the first actions of a totalitarian government. It speaks to the power of individual voice... More
PEN Québec: A New Generation on a Familiar Quest for Literary Identity
There’s always a quest for identity. Whichever way you look at it, I feel that every writer in Québec is somehow drawn to this question. More
The PEN Ten with Safiya Sinclair
I think the responsibility of the writer is to say something true, to give voice to untold histories, to say something sincere about personhood, to speak from the margins… More