The PEN Pod: Avenues for Magic with Emily X.R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma
““We wanted to acknowledge and share some of the beauty and the power that YA fiction has, especially in the form of the short story.” More
The PEN Pod: Nurturing Children’s Curiosity with Tami Charles
“Yes, this is a love letter to my son. Yes, this is a love letter to Black and Brown children, but this is also an affirmation to all children.” More
The PEN Pod: On Knowing We’re Not Alone with BIll Konigsberg
“The misfits have stories to tell. People who feel that way have more of a need to read in some ways, so I think it’s a perfect marriage.” More
The PEN Pod: On the Power of Poetry with Natasha Trethewey
“Poetry can save us. It can, in many ways, unite us because of the sheer intimacy of a single voice that might reach someone.” More
The PEN Pod: Challenging Our Paradigms with Julia Alvarez
“What [reading] asks of us is to become the other, to become someone else. And those are the same muscles that we use when we’re activists for social justice.“ More
On Writing Fearlessly: A PEN Ten Interview with Lilliam Rivera
"I’m just trying . . . to find joy in the littlest of things—in working with young people, in laughing out loud with my friends, and in writing fearlessly." More
PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists
The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists is offered annually and awards $5,000 to an author of children’s or young adult fiction. More
Alert Us
Are you an artist at risk or know someone who is?
PEN America On 
Okay I’m fan-boying out on a dozen different levels here.
At the heart of @PENamerica Birmingham Reads is the assumption that communities form around the meaning of language—that the way we use words defines the world as we know it.
Countdown to @imaniperry at @MilesCollege.
Join us. ✨
https://tinyurl.com/43jxc3hb
From school board meetings to statehouses to newsrooms to digital spaces—free expression is under threat around the world.
We invite high school & college students to share your thoughts—using the 10 prompts above—in our Free Expression Essay Competition: https://pen.org/free-expression-advocacy-institutes/free-expression-essay-competition/