The PEN Ten: An Interview with Nawaaz Ahmed
“I think the power of words also comes from what we seek through them, how we make them ours, how we use them to represent something we otherwise cannot… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Matthew Specktor
“Everything is lost, eventually. Everything. Writing remains the only way I know to preserve the world as it vanishes all around us.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with the 2021-2022 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellows
“You must be willing to get your pen dirty. Write with passion. Befriend an incarcerated person, learn how society formed that person, feel the connection you share with that… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Sunjeev Sahota
“Watching imagined people struggling through life in the imagined arena of a novel somehow allows me to live my life in a better, more self-aware way.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Zülfü Livaneli
“I have no regrets about my work. I wouldn’t want to change a single word I’ve written. . . . I’ve been sentenced several times because of [my] poem,… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with John Paul Brammer
“There’s something about writing that can turn thoughts into objects, into something that you can turn around and fiddle with and polish up.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Choi Eunyoung, Translated by Sung Ryu
“Although a book isn’t a person, I hoped that mine would be a book that ‘listens’ to the stories of people going through similar battles as me.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Kristen Arnett
“Knowing Florida so intimately means that I write about it like I would a family member. Something I can sometimes love and sometimes loathe, but at the end of… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Iván Monalisa Ojeda, Translated by Hannah Kauders
“You come here as an immigrant to a foreign country, far away from your family, but there’s one thing that reminds you of home—and that’s the language. Language unifies… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Keiichiro Hirano, Translated by Eli K.P. William
“When a novel has compelling prose, brims with soul-shaking turns of phrase, features characters more intriguing than real people . . . I feel sad to have to finish… More