The PEN Ten with Rob Spillman

"I do believe there is a collective purpose to telling the stories that people know to be true, but that they have not yet been able to articulate, or… More

A Banned Books Wrap Up

This September, PEN American Center reached out to writers, editors, literary illuminati, and PEN staff to write about the banned books that matter to them most. Below you’ll find… More

On William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying

While ideological book banning is infuriating, banning out of ignorance and vague religiosity are, to me, even more galling. William Faulkner’s classic, As I Lay Dying, has been banned… More

Rob Spillman: Eye of the Outsider

James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce, set in Southern California at the time when the roaring ’20s was turning into the low, depressed growl of the ’30s, captures an era… More