Convicts and Communities
The reinvestment of dignity into hopeless convicts—which is after all the definition of rehabilitation—is not much in vogue in America. There is little urgency to rebuild broken individuals and… More
Sara Paretsky: Refusing to allow pressure to silence a critical voice
The night we began our invasion of Iraq -- March 20, 2003 -- I was speaking at the Toledo public library. The day before, my speakers bureau told me… More
The Power of the Pen: Entire Discussion
SALMAN RUSHDIE: A butterfly flaps its wings in India and we feel the breeze on our cheeks in New York. A throat is cleared somewhere in Africa and in… More
International Noir
ROBERT POLITO: Noir is commonly thought of as an American genre, if it’s in fact a genre. The films “noir” was first used to describe back in the 1940s… More
The Power of the Pen: Nuruddin Farah & Jonathan Franzen
NURUDDIN FARAH: On my first day at school, a teacher, a man who was teaching me and who knew my name, asked me what my name was. And I… More
Quixote at 400: A Tribute
SALMAN RUSHDIE: We’re gathered here to praise what many people would call the greatest novel ever written: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Knight, Don… More
Minae Mizumura: Crossover Artists: Writing in Another Language
"Crossover Artists: Writing in Another Language," with Minae Mizumura and Shan Sa, appears in PEN America 7: World Voices. This conversation was presented, in slightly different form, at the… More
Confronting the Worst: Writing and Catastrophe
PEN America 7: World VoicesWith Svetlana Alexievich, François Bizot, Carolin Emcke, Philip Gourevitch, Ryszard Kapuscinski, and Elena Poniatowska; moderated by Susie Linfield.This talk was presented, in slightly different form,… More
The Way We Love Now: Who Wrote the Book of Sex?
WAYNE KOESTENBAUM: This panel’s title pays oblique homage to the late Susan Sontag, whose 1986 short story “The Way We Live Now” itself honored Anthony Trollope’s 1875 novel, The… More
Postcolonial Passages: Assia Djebar & Lyone Trouillot
"Postcolonial Passages," with Assia Djebar and Lyone Trouillot, appears in PEN America 7: World Voices. This talk was presented, in slightly different form, at the 2005 PEN World Voices… More
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