As I Hear the Rain
In this week's special edition of the Illustrated PEN, we present "As I Hear the Rain" a series of illustrations that accompany winning manuscripts from the 2019 Prison Writing… More
Works of Justice—BREAK OUT: A Movement
This September, PEN America and The Poetry Project launch BREAK OUT: a movement to (re)integrate incarcerated writers into literary community. More
Works of Justice: A Question of Justice
Many Americans agree that our criminal justice system needs thorough reform—but how can public sentiment lead to effective systemic changes? On May 11, 2019, as part of the PEN… More
Works of Justice: On Writing in Prison
The Prison Writing Program commissioned currently incarcerated writers to reflect on the hidden creative life in prison for the 2019 World Voices Festival. More
Works of Justice: An Interview with Writing for Justice Fellow Thomas Bartlett Whitaker
"Within my writings, I am able to take a moral stand against a site and an ideology that I feel to be both overwhelming and inherently broken." More
Works of Justice: An Interview with Writing for Justice Fellow Justin Rovillos Monson
"Writing expanded my world at a time when everything felt so small and suffocating. As embarrassingly cliché as it is to say, writing gave me a breadth of hope." More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with 2018 Prison Writing Award Winner Matthew Mendoza
"My best writing is about moments of magical awareness. I refused to give voice to the monotony, the bullying and violence that make up prison life." More
The Named and the Nameless
In this week's special edition of the Illustrated PEN, we present "The Named and the Nameless," a series of illustrations that accompany winning manuscripts from the 2018 Prison Writing… More
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PEN America On 
Good news about the fate of arrested Chinese dissidents is rare. His own smile in this picture well reflects how we feel about word that Professor Xu Zhangrun, jailed for an essay critical of Xi Jinping, has been released from detention. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/world/asia/xu-zhangrun-china-xi.html?referringSource=articleShare
Find inspiration with PEN/Faulkner award winner @JamesHannaham's installment of the PEN to Paper video series as he stirs the imagination to craft detailed, authentic characters! https://bit.ly/2Zh5ElS
Tune into Bela Shayevich's Just Press Play playlist from @penworldvoices - a curated collection of Soviet darkwave music, the "sounds of perestroika." Listen here: https://bit.ly/3f6cgui. #penworldvoices