Autobiography of a Corpse
There wasn’t a minute to lose. All about them people were beginning to whisper. The whispers became murmurs, the murmurs a hubbub, the hubbub an outcry, and the outcry… More
Knockemstiff
Though she’s rotten to the core, I reckon I’ve always loved Tina Elliot, from the first time I laid eyes on her. She came in the store with her… More
2014 Literary Award Winners
View the 2014 PEN Literary Awards Ceremony Program herePEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut FictionGodforsaken Idaho (Little A/New Harvest), Shawn VestalPEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American FictionLouise ErdrichPEN/Bellwether… More
All the Pretty Horses
In his sleep he could hear the horses stepping among the rocks and he could hear them drink from the shallow pools in the dark where the rocks lay… More
Cities of the Plain
Well there was all these jackrabbits in the road. They’d set there and freeze in the lights. Blap. Blap. I looked over at Gene and I said: What do… More
The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
10. Young OsamaAl-Thaghr sat on several dozen arid acres lined by eucalyptus trees, whose branches were twisted by winds from the Red Sea. The campus spread north from the… More
An Aquarium
Seahorse It is said an encounter with a seahorsein a dream is an encounter with the un-conscious. Is this because bothevoke delicate armor? Beneathhistory is another history we’ve madewithout… More
“What Happened to the Baby?”
When I was a child, I was often taken to meetings of my Uncle Simon’s society, the League for a Unified Humanity. These meetings, my mother admitted, were not… More
The Septembers of Shiraz
CHAPTER 27Isaac stretches his legs, tapping them with his fingers to help his blood circulate. He is glad to have a sink in his room; he rinses his face… More