2009 PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowships for Writers

WinnerDonald Ray Pollock for his collection Knockemstiff (Doubleday)The PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship honors an exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work—a novel or collection of short stories published in 2007—represents… More

2009 PEN/Saul Bellow Award

WinnerCormac McCarthyThe PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction goes to a distinguished living American author of fiction whose body of work in English possesses qualities of excellence,… More

Greed’s Prisoner

even the ashes don’t belong to you, his body / in the prison of the Communist Party / so that the spirit-cell you built / without a door without… More

Marie Étienne: King of a Hundred Horsemen

Translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker, who received the 2009 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. Preface by Marilyn HackerMarie Étienne has always composed poetry and prose alternately or simultaneously,… More

Buried Child

I haven’t got anything under the sofa! Now mind your own damn business! Jesus God, you come into the house outa the middle of nowhere, haven’t heard or seen… More

States of Shock

CHARACTERSColonelStubbsGlory BeeWhite ManWhite WomanStubbs: MY THING HANGS LIKE DEAD MEAT!!! (Pause. White couple turns and stares at Stubbs. The Colonel ignores them. He’s busy taking several toy soldiers, tanks,… More

A Glimpse Is All I Can Stand

A Glimpse Is All I Can StandNew Smyrna Beach, Florida1972(Based on a True Story) 1.Mama she say shh.She say shhh.She say, quiet baby. 2.In the beginningit was just meand Lizwith Mommaon… More

King of a Hundred Horsemen

Marie Étienne, born in Menton in the Alpes-Maritimes, spent her childhood in Indochina, in what is now Vietnam, during the Second World War and the beginning of the Viet… More

The Dark Side

Two years later, Kleinman was exonerated by the Department of Defense’s investigation. He was thanked for upholding the law by the Inspector General at the Joint Forces command and… More