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
The PEN Ten with Lidia Yuknavitch
I am against censorship. Freedom of expression is worth dying for, worth fighting for. But I am troubled by the relationship between our words and our deeds. More
The PEN Ten with Melissa Febos
We wield a lot of power, even when we don’t recognize it. Sometimes I think we’d rather not recognize it. We can’t afford to indulge that particular laziness anymore. More
The PEN Ten with Cameron Awkward-Rich
I do think, now, that making space for ourselves in indifferent, hostile worlds is the most daring thing we can do. More
The PEN Ten with Saul Williams
"It is the challenges we pose to ourselves that bring the greatest honesty, lucidity, imagination, directness. I consider my responsibility as a poet as something related to the journalist,… More
The PEN Ten with Alex Berenson
Nonfiction writers—reporters of all stripes, historians, biographers—have to start and end with the truth as their lodestar. The truth is a painful master. It blinks and hides, disappears entirely,… More
The PEN Ten with Min Jin Lee
Whether in fiction or nonfiction, I want to be a fair and emotionally truthful writer. Also, I think I should tell a story worth the reader’s time and attention. More
The PEN Ten with Jonathan Baumbach
One writes to discover a truth that is truer than what existed before. More
The PEN Ten with Camille Rankine
I like to hear stories from worlds that aren't my own. Sometimes, when I'm listening, a phrase floats into the air and everything else gets quiet, and it's like… More
The PEN Ten with Phenderson Clark
"I have been on the opposite end of a police officer’s drawn weapon on at least three separate occasions in three different American cities. I can still recall… More