Emerging Voices Podcast
The PEN America Emerging Voices Podcast was created to increase the reach of the fellowship and provide the tools necessary to launch a professional writing career to writers in… More
“Loving is a Serious Crime”—A Continued Call on Behalf of Liu Xia
“They should add a line to the constitution: ‘Loving Liu Xiaobo is a serious crime, a life sentence.’” More
Wajahat Ali Interviews Timothy Snyder for Read the Resistance, August 2017
If things don’t go well, there are going to be considerable risks later…while the risks are limited, people have to get out and practice being a little courageous. More
“We Have Not Lived Through the Peak of Our Hardships”: An Interview with Andrey Kurkov
Nowadays, 80 percent of young authors write politically engaged literature, trying to touch upon very painful topics, the topics of refugees, immigrants, the topic of responsibility for the future... More
Chinua Achebe: “The Day I Finally Met Baldwin”
You should have seen his severe countenance crumble instantly into boyish happiness…With typical hyperbole, Baldwin called me his buddy, a brother he had not seen in 400 years. More
The M Word Stories: Wajahat Ali
If you aren’t writing your own story your story is always being written for you by others…It's imperative that people of good will and talent pick up the pen. More
Hilton Als on James Baldwin
I had wanted to dislike him more than I do in order to have some distance from his influence, but it is an influence I have absorbed. More
Nikki Giovanni: Making James Baldwin
Never deny what your heart knows is the truth. Never turn your back on what your mind knows is right. Never refuse to hear the cry of the angry… More
Carl Hancock Rux Reads James Baldwin
To celebrate James Baldwin's birthday, here's a 2001 recording of poet, playwright, and novelist Carl Hancock Rux reading Baldwin's work at PEN America's Twentieth-Century Masters Tribute event. More
Christopher Hitchens On George Orwell
In this 2002 recording from the PEN America Digital Archive, Christopher Hitchens offers a critical analysis of Orwell's works from his own intellectual perspective. More
Support for the freedom to read with exclusive designs by Todd Parr, Mike Curato, Art Spiegelman, and more!
