The PEN Pod: On Book Bans with George M. Johnson
“I’m proud that they’re trying to stop my truth in many ways. I can’t be intimidated. I mean, I put my story out there for the world to see,… More
The PEN Pod: The Journey to Cloud Cuckoo Land with Anthony Doerr
“Books allow us to slip out of the walls—the proverbial walls or the metaphorical walls—of our own lives. And thank goodness they do.” More
The PEN Pod: On Diverse Latinx Voices and Identities with Saraciea J. Fennell
“You can imagine how intense it is to navigate the world when you are constantly having to prove your identity, constantly having to reaffirm, ‘This is who I am.’” More
The PEN Pod: On Horror and Humor with Melissa Lozada-Oliva
“Humor can just be a tool for showing things that are underneath, and not a shield, and that’s what I was trying to do with this book.” More
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
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