Sam Shepard Reads from Motel Chronicles

Today we share a clip from the 2007 PEN World Voices Festival in which the late, great Sam Shepard reads an excerpt from his short story collection Motel Chronicles. More

Roxane Gay on Diversity in Publishing

In anticipation of the 2018 PEN World Voices Festival, today we share a clip from the 2016 festival in which Hunger author Roxane Gay discusses issues of diversity in… More

Edmund White on Gay Fiction

Once AIDS came along in 1981, gay writers were encouraged to back off from writing sex scenes. We weren’t supposed to awaken any sense of backlash against gays who… More

Zeyar Lynn Reads Two Poems

I have not written my history ... They have written my history, then they have airbrushed me from history. More

The PEN Ten with Marge Piercy

Even very dangerous books are worth reading, if only to know my enemy. I don’t think anybody has the right to censor another person’s ideas. More

PEN World Voices Festival: Gender and Power

New York, NY (February 16, 2017) –The thirteenth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature will focus its lens on today’s fractious relationship between gender and power. Taking… More