Africa and the World: Writers at Home and Away
BREYTEN BREYTENBACH: If one mentions the word “Africa” in a global context, it tends to evoke many responses and perhaps even some obsessions. People tend to project on the… More
Flattop for Cherry Hill
This is a story about the experiences I have had as a prison barber. I was incarcerated at the C.E. Egeler Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan 1995-1998.Cherry Hill is… More
How Should One Read a Book?
In the first place, I want to emphasize the note of interrogation at the end of my title. Even if I could answer the question for myself, the answer… More
The Most Insidious Censorship: A Conversation
K. ANTHONY APPIAH: As member’s of PEN’s Freedom-to-Write Committee, we’re heirs to a tradition of worrying mostly about the role of governments in restricting access to information, which is… More
Love and Revolution
People sometimes talk about Neruda as two different poets: the poet of politics and revolution, and the poet of love or romance. He is actually both at the same… More
Zargana: Oblivion
OblivionAt night the moonbeams snap.The stars are suffocated.That maligned, unhappy barn owlscreeches out its grief.The old train on the trackshurtles to its destructionwheezing out its last breath. And I? I… More
Rituals of Restlessness
“Where are we going sir?”“To work.”“What’s our business?”Kamran felt less anxious when he talked. He didn’t want to remain silent, even for a second. He just wanted to talk,… More
Fatou Jaw Manneh: Dame of the Flaming Pen
Q: What motivated or inspired you to write?A: Political stagnation at that time, corruption and nepotism mainly motivated me. I also believe that no human being should sit on… More
Q & A with Larry Siems, Director, Freedom to Write and International Programs
In 1921, two years after the First World War, British writers (C. A. Dawson Scott and John Galsworthy) founded the first PEN (poets, playwrights, essayists, editors, and novelists) center… More
Letter for Steve Champion
I am writing on behalf of Steve Champion, who I've spoken to this morning (April 15, 2007). He is in Orange, California for a court date, which is why… More
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