How the Catcher in the Rye Ruined My Life
When I checked out The Catcher in the Rye at the library I was looking foreward to stirring up the thick sediment of adolescence. Though I recalled the details of… More
Hettie Jones & Charles Norman: An Interview
Although much of my “prison” work is dark and tragic, I’m actually the class clown, and my humor is an important part of who I am. I have to… More
Release Date
On shaky knees Carson takes the first step onto the front walk. For six long years the address before him had been only numbers and letters. Now, in the… More
A Three-Strikes Sojourn
“Dey, wake up. You have court today.”Oh man. Here we go. Judgment and sentencing. I was about to feel the entire weight of the drug war era justice system… More
PEN welcomes developments in prison writing suit, workshop suspension
Assurances that Connecticut's Department of Corrections will continue Wally Lamb's Creative Writing Program at the York Correctional Institution and that the State of Connecticut will soon announce a successful… More
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PEN America On 
My latest op-ed on school librarians. @becalzada @technolibrary @MaryWoodard @KPekoll @OIF #Freadom @ashleyhopeperez @halseanderson https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/school-library-book-banning-bill-gop-abbott-lege-17857122.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaG91c3RvbmNocm9uaWNsZS5jb20vb3Bpbmlvbi9vdXRsb29rL2FydGljbGUvc2Nob29sLWxpYnJhcnktYm9vay1iYW5uaW5nLWJpbGwtZ29wLWFiYm90dC1sZWdlLTE3ODU3MTIyLnBocA==&time=MTY3OTcwNDU3Nzg4MQ==&rid=NDBiMmRkY2UtYTdjZC00NWU2LWE0NmQtMDZmMTlkNWE2OGIw&sharecount=MQ==
#ChildrensBooks
“#FirstAmendment rights do not stop at the schoolhouse door,” PEN America’s Nadine Farid Johnson reminds
@JudiciaryGOP, highlighting the need to prepare students for "life in a participatory democracy, one that requires us to debate, to understand & to discuss." #StudentsRights