“Being a Writer is a Matter of Doing”: A PEN Ten Interview with Yoon Ha Lee
"It is through fiction we tell ourselves the emotional truths about life and living, from birth to death, from friendship and love to betrayal, from madness to mercy." More
A PEN Ten Interview with Author Susan Bernhard
"Facts are provable, truths are held, like beliefs. Perception is more interesting to me—how we see a set of facts through the lenses of individual experience." More
A PEN Ten Interview with Poet Cynthia Manick
"It’s a writer’s job to take truth and empathy and stretch it every direction; to make sense of things that don’t make sense." More
On History, Self-Censorship, and Bravery: A PEN Ten Interview with Wayétu Moore
"I do recognize that the desire to resist stems from being socialized in a system that institutionally devalues my worth." More
“Whenever I Write, I’m Asserting That I Matter”: A PEN Ten Interview with Naima Coster
"Whenever I write, I’m asserting that I matter . . . I see that as resistance, even if it only changes what it’s like for me to be in… More
“To Remember is a Kind of Resistance”: A PEN Ten Interview with Julian Randall
"I’m glad so many people have found something they know to be true, someone like themselves in what I’ve written." More
On Identity, Perspective, and Influences: A PEN Ten Interview with Katya Apekina
"I’m looking at emotional truth, and that’s subjective and contradictory. The facts might be the facts, but how does one interpret them?" More
On Language, Truth, and Self-Expression: A PEN Ten Interview with Dessa
The PEN Ten is PEN America’s weekly interview series. This week PEN America's Public Program Manager, Lily Philpott, speaks to Dessa, a rapper, a singer, an essayist, and a… More
The PEN Ten Interview with Author Alethea Black
"I think the biggest threat to free expression today is the use of social media (or media in general) to bully and intimidate voices of dissent." More
“What Matters is the Writing Itself”: A PEN Ten Interview with the 2018 Los Angeles Literary Award Winners
"Every step of the writing process is also a choice to include or exclude, and being aware of our own biases in making those choices seems necessary." More
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