A Three-Strikes Sojourn
“Dey, wake up. You have court today.”Oh man. Here we go. Judgment and sentencing. I was about to feel the entire weight of the drug war era justice system… More
Poetrical Muralism
Growing up in the aftermath of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 70s, my generation and I were the beneficiaries of an abundance of free Chicano health clinics,… More
Pictures Don’t Lie
So, I’m looking at this car, right. It’s a mess. Yeah, it’s not going anywhere. It looks like a spaghetti strainer. Holes everywhere. Big holes.I’m thinking, “What’s up with… More
Mavis Gallant, “August,” & What Cannot Be Said
This year, at the restaurant La Rotonde in Paris, I once again had lunch with Mavis Gallant and several other expatriate writers. I mentioned that when I returned to… More
National Press Club Remarks
Listen to this event (1:18:16)PEN American Center is delighted to be sponsoring this event with the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and the Association of American Publishers.… More
Burning From the Inside Out
Irish IndependentThere is a moment from the day after the World Trade Centre bombings that I still recall, though I have never written it down, nor told it to… More
Does It Work?
MIAMI—A few years ago, as I worked on a documentary film about torture survivors in exile from my native Haiti, I met a young woman who under questioning by… More
Are We Really So Fearful?
DURHAM, N.C.—It still haunts me, the first time—it was in Chile, in October of 1973—that I met someone who had been tortured. To save my life, I had sought… More
Places of the Heart
New York TimesIt took two years for me to be able walk to the end of my block and not feel a visceral shock each time I looked down… More
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