The PEN Ten with Alissa Nutting

"I think writing should be a sacrifice, and feel like one—how else could the act of constructing narratives, stories, lies, deceptions, ever be kept honest, if not through demanding… More

The PEN Ten with Richard Nash

I'd beg the imprisoned writer to try to remember her teenaged self. The intensity, the outrage, the sentiment, the naïveté, the resentment, the joy. More

An Interview with Michael Scammell

As part of PEN American Center's 90th Anniversary celebration, we spoke to past presidents, staff, and members about the evolution of the organization and most pressing issues of freedom… More

The PEN Ten with Rachel Rosenfelt

The PEN Ten is PEN America's new biweekly interview series curated by Lauren Cerand about writing, freedom of expression, and the notion of public intellectuals in the United States.… More

Joy Harjo: A Preview

Joy Harjo will be participating in Speaking in Languages on the Edge and Obsession: Joy Harjo on Time in the 2013 PEN World Voices Festival. Joy Harjo burst onto the international literary… More

Three Questions with C.D. Wright

Clearly authoritarian states are afraid of even small, solo voices. Less mucked-up states with grandiose images of themselves are afraid of truth-speakers as well. But they can just paper… More

Three Questions with Shane McCrae

Self-obsession is an inevitable by-product of capitalism. And capitalism has become—mistakenly, I think—inextricably tangled up with most folks’ sense of what “the American way” is (but it’s hard not… More