from Known and Strange Things
Teju Cole's "Known and Strange Things" is a finalist for the 2017 PEN Jean/Stein Book Award. Here's an essay from the collection. More
PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History ($10,000)
For a literary work of nonfiction that uses oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement. More
Two Countries
In this piece delivered by Sabina Berman at the event Mexico In Two Acts during the 2016 PEN World Voices Festival, Berman delivered her personal view on contemporary Mexico's… More
Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey
Beauty is the ultimate democracy, because a beautiful thing, particularly if it exists in nature, belongs to everyone. More
Rain: A Natural and Cultural History
"Rain and two more of its wondrous pride—clouds and rainbows—have inspired writers, painters, and poets for thousands of years. Homer’s Iliad is thick with clouds, as is much of… More
Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World
"Laki spewed out more sulfur dioxide—about 122 million tons of it—than any other eruption in the past 1,000 years. That’s more than enough to wreak climate havoc well beyond… More
The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star
"Instead of instinctively doing what most parents would regard as common sense—keeping their child away from things that could kill him—Tiffany and Kenneth shifted to what was essentially a… More
The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World
"If everyone in the world ate as much meat as Americans do (176 pounds per person per year), we’d need to find another planet to raise the feed and… More
Tibet on Fire: Self-Immolation Against Chinese Rule
Tibet on Fire is Tsering Woeser's account of the oppression Tibetans face and the ideals driving those who resist. More
By Way of a Preface
This ode to the essay is from Charles D'Ambrosio's Loitering: New and Collected Essays, a finalist for the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. More
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