The PEN Ten with Burhan Sönmez
"We don’t have to think of limiting our freedom. Instead, we need to find ways to cross the borderlines of restrictions and, when it happens, be ready to pay… More
The PEN Ten with Yuri Herrera
"The writer’s responsibility cannot be dictated by any party, politician, sponsor, or cleric. If it is possible to talk about the responsibility of the writer, it is to be… More
The PEN Ten with Saleem Haddad
"When I write in English, I try to make sure that my writing holds a mirror up to the West as much as it does to the Arab world.… More
The PEN Ten with Marlon James
"Writers do have a collective purpose, and that’s to write. I think we writers have managed to convince ourselves that that's not enough. Why is that? Writing can actually… More
The PEN Ten with John Murillo
"It was after the Rodney King verdicts were announced in April of 1992. I remember feeling simultaneously pleased and disappointed with myself that my first response was to want… More
The PEN Ten with Jennifer Clement
"I’m always in search of how the divine and profane coexist and how the powerless find ways to exercise power." More
The PEN Ten with Hayan Charara
"When it comes to the censorship of Arab or Muslim lives, the 'unacceptable parts' are usually not of books or movies but of entire realities." More
The PEN Ten with Martín Espada
"As a poet with a background in law, I am obsessed by the philosophy, the poetics, and the practice of justice. I am obsessed by what Whitman calls, 'the… More
The PEN Ten with Lauret Savoy
"Perhaps some might not think of this as censorship, but how a society remembers can’t be separated from how it wants to be remembered or from what it wishes… More
The PEN Ten with Lauren Beukes
"I joke that some people go to see psychologists, but I get my issues out on the page and make it my readers’ problem." More
Alert Us
Are you an artist at risk or know someone who is?
PEN America On 
"A man with a knife cannot silence a man with a pen," New York @GovKathyHochul says following @SalmanRushdie attack https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/jamestown/politics/2022/08/14/-a-man-with-a-knife-cannot-silence-a-man-with-a-pen---hochul-says-following-rushdie-attack?cid=share_twitter #SalmanRushdie
Threats and acts of violence directed toward any author in retaliation for their words imperil free speech for us all. Hoping for safety, wellbeing and freedom from harassment for @jk_rowling https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/14/business/jk-rowling-salman-rushdie-threat.html
Did you know? #PENAmerica offers professional memberships for published or produced writers, editors, translators, dramatists, screenwriters & other writing professionals.
We also offer Reader Membership for anyone who advocates for the #FreedomToWrite: https://pen.org/membership/
