The Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at the PEN World Voices Festival
“So I imagine that the originators [of PEN] believed that what was required, if mankind was not to destroy itself, was an organized reminder that humanity’s survival transcended any… More
PEN South Africa Protests Sentencing of Swazi Editor
PEN South Africa protests the sentencing Swazi journalist Bheki Makhubu, editor of the independent news magazine The Nation, to two years imprisonment. More
Five Journalists Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison; 50 Others Face Charges for a Peaceful Protest
PEN is calling for five journalists in Myanmar to be released immediately and unconditionally and for any charges against the another fifty journalists related to their peaceful protest to… More
Stop Comparing the NSA to 1984 (and Start Comparing It to Philip K. Dick)
Writers overwhelmingly use Orwell's novel to describe the surveillance state—which makes it easy to forget who's really oppressed today. More
PEN Letter to President Obama in Advance of the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg
PEN sent the following letter to President Obama in advance of the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, to urge him to use the opporutnity to express concern over… More
Ayşe Berktay’s Acceptance Remarks
Dear esteemed members of PEN American Center, dear guests,I very much wish I could be with you in person. It was not possible but I send to you my… More
Kathy Park Hong Reads from “The Flowers of Hell” by Nguyen Chi Thien
In the Jungle Night a Bird CallsIn the jungle night a strange bird callsFollowed by a guard’s tripping shoe soundsA patrol flashlight beams here and thereFrom the cells come… More
Our Town Downtown: Q & A with Larry Siems, Director of Freedom to Write and International Programs
Our Town Downtown, May 28, 2007—In 1921, two years after the First World War, British writers (C. A. Dawson Scott and John Galsworthy) founded the first PEN (poets, playwrights,… More
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