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
V1agra C1alis
1I didn’t get it at first. I thought she was kidding. Viagra, Cialis, your woman will want to keep going all night. I won’t say I didn’t blush. But… More
The 48th Congress of International PEN
The 48th Congress of International PEN, the global writers’ organization dedicated to spreading the word and defending its servants, was quite a show. Norman Mailer, president of PEN American… More
Photocopies of Photocopies: On Bao Ninh
Bao Ninh, now living in Hanoi, became a novelist in the second half of his life. Until the age of forty, he served in the North Vietnamese Army, fighting… More
On Writing
A young student once wrote to the French novelist André Gide to ask him whether he should try to become a writer. “Only if you have to,” answered Gide,… More
A Reservoir of Freedom
We have come to the end of one of the most illustrious, unruly, and eventful congresses in the history of International PEN. Have so many brilliant writers ever gathered… More
From the Floor: A Conversation with Grace Paley, Margaret Atwood, and Norman Mailer
We protest the state of the imagination of the PEN International Congress, 1986. We protest the underrepresentation of women on the panels and in the readings. Although nearly half… More
Wait, Blink
But: That’s not possible, her lecturer said. How do you expect the audience to see anything at all on a backlit screen? It’ll fade out the film and make… More
Laying Roots
I wake from my sleep stiff and groggy. When I try to lift my head, it feels heavy, too heavy. My neck is sore. I lay flat on my… More
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