PEN America President Jennifer Egan Calls for Justice for Jamal Khashoggi
We can best honor Jamal’s life, his work, and his ultimate sacrifice by insisting upon our right to speak the truth and by protecting those who speak it. More
Ai Weiwei: Why Do the Powerful Fear Poets?
Globally lauded artist and activist Ai Weiwei accepts PEN America’s Artistic Expression Award at their 2018 LitFest Gala. More
Barry Jenkins: “Thank You So Damn Much For Writing the Things You Write”
Barry Jenkins thanks writers for inspiring his work while accepting PEN America's Award for Screenplay Excellence at the 2018 LitFest Gala. More
A Conversation with Eisa Davis & Eisa Ulen.
"Born of the bloodfire of struggle for the people. I honor my child with your daughter’s name. May they both be strong forces of love and revolution."These are the… More
‘That Book Wrote Me’
Chinua Achebe delivered the following speech at the close of PEN's 2008 Tribute to Chinua Achebe. It appears in PEN America 9: Checkpoints, along with other excerpts from the… More
Strangely Personal: Growing Up in Chinua Achebe’s House
The year that I turned six, my family moved into a bigger house with a staircase that at first terrified me. The family that had just moved out, I… More
Love Letter
“You’re a really good writer,” she said, “almost as good as your brother Charles. You should read the novel he’s writing.” So I snuck into Charles’s room and… More
Roger Angell: A Sporting Life
And in the off season once, when he was working for the Tigers, working with some teenagers, he discovered a new pitch. He learned that if you take the… More
Saul Bellow, Allen Ginsberg, Nadine Gordimer, Salman Rushdie & Others
There has never been much rapport between government and art in the United States. The thing was set up only, on the political level, to create a kind of… More
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PEN America On 
President Trump said that he directed White House press secretary Sarah Sanders “not to bother” with press briefings because he believes that reporters are rude to her and that most members of the media will not cover the administration fairly. https://t.co/yFLTsRuIsM
"Oliver gave voice to the process of confronting one’s dark places, of peering underneath toadstools and into stagnant ponds. And, when she looked there, she found forgiveness."
2019 PEN/Bograd Weld judge @rachsyme on the late, great Mary Oliver. https://t.co/Lf6JfL8hrd