Ayad Akhtar’s Remarks at the 2021 PEN America Literary Gala
“Reading, of course, is an individual act, but a culture that fosters reading and one that supports writers, invariably compels us to presence, to protest, to celebration.” More
The PEN Pod: On Trauma, Identity, and Reinvention with Dan O’Brien
“It’s so important to me to push through the taboo of what we shouldn’t speak about and can’t speak about, or feel we can’t speak about.” More
The PEN Pod: On the Healing Power of Writing with DREAMing Out Loud’s Nicole Henry
“Writing is really just powerful. Putting words to paper, whether it’s fiction or fact, it’s just a great way to work through some stuff.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with John Paul Brammer
“There’s something about writing that can turn thoughts into objects, into something that you can turn around and fiddle with and polish up.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Choi Eunyoung, Translated by Sung Ryu
“Although a book isn’t a person, I hoped that mine would be a book that ‘listens’ to the stories of people going through similar battles as me.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Kristen Arnett
“Knowing Florida so intimately means that I write about it like I would a family member. Something I can sometimes love and sometimes loathe, but at the end of… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Matthew Salesses
“Stories teach us how to be in the world, and from a young age, we learn that the kind of person who gets to be the protagonist is the… More
Alert Us
Are you an artist at risk or know someone who is?
PEN America On 
Our friends at @PENamerica are hosting a PEN Out Loud conversation tonight, Oct. 26 at 8:00 PM Eastern. New York Times Book Review editor @PamelaPaulNYT will be in conversation with author @laurenoyler:
http://ow.ly/Fwl050Gyy9z
"The CCP sees its continued reign as dependent not only on its long-standing practice of severely restricting speech inside China but also on dictating global narratives about China." Read PEN America CEO @SuzanneNossel's latest piece in @ForeignPolicy: https://bit.ly/3Bl6IX0.
