PEN America Calls for Belarus to Drop Charges Against Belarus Coordination Council
“This criminal case is yet another hit at the creative community in Belarus. The authorities should respect the voices of the people and immediately cease this bogus prosecution.” More
DARE: Infowars App Downloads Surge After Tech Giants Ban Alex Jones Content from Platforms
Infowars traffic and downloads surge, and controversy rages, as outlet is banned from Facebook and Youtube. Newsprint tariffs strangle local newspapers. More
PEN America Expresses Concern Over Recent Developments at PEN Russia
NEW YORK—PEN America stands in solidarity with Russian writers who share our ideals and those of the PEN Charter in strong defense of free expression and other human rights,… More
Elena Poniatowska: Confronting the Worst: Writing and Catastrophe
I’m going to read a testimony from a person who helped during the 1985 earthquake in Mexico. It’s a young boy, about eighteen:We reached the baseball park in the… More
Francois Bizot: Confronting the Worst: Writing and Catastrophe
In 1971, I was caught by a revolutionary communist in Cambodia. I was chained and condemned to death and before that, interrogated by a young man who asked me… More
Confronting the Worst: Writing and Catastrophe
PEN America 7: World VoicesWith Svetlana Alexievich, François Bizot, Carolin Emcke, Philip Gourevitch, Ryszard Kapuscinski, and Elena Poniatowska; moderated by Susie Linfield.This talk was presented, in slightly different form,… More
Confronting the Worst: Writing & Catastrophe
Listen.I’d like to remember the great Chekhov and his play Three Sisters. The main character in that play says over and over, “Now life is terrible, we live in… More
Editor’s Note
The first annual PEN World Voices Festival brought together 125 writers from around the globe for a week of intense conversation about language, culture, crime, catastrophe, death, sex, religion—the… More