The Intersection
“The Intersection” explores issues at the core of PEN America’s work—where literature intersects with human rights advocacy. “The Intersection” digs into the pressing issues of the day to consider… More
Amplifying DREAMer Voices: The DACA Debate and Free Expression
The uncertainty surrounding their status has driven many DREAMers into the shadows, like many of this country’s other undocumented residents. As a result, the current debate about their future… More
Interrogating the Status Quo
In an era where powerful men are being toppled and long-held notions of “acceptable behavior” are changing, writers remind us that the rules governing language are also not free… More
On Difficult Conversations
As I look at the gulf between these bases of support, I’ve been thinking about “difficult conversation”—what that means, how it happens, and what we hope can come… More
Narrative Through Community
Our communities are being polarized and manipulated with competing notions of the truth…How do we address these divisions of outright truth and lie? Research provides a necessary starting point. More
This Is Not a Good News Story
What gets coded as what, and how, seems an almost week-to-week question posed in our media and discourse…There are tangible consequences to the language and narratives we use. More
Toward New Symbols and Platforms
Interrogating our national symbols is necessary to disrupting and dismantling power, but so is erecting new symbols and stories, or rather amplifying and holding space for stories that have… More
The Invisible Work Around You
Those of us who are documented have a responsibility to put ourselves on the line, while still centering the stories and voices of those who are most at risk. More
Rereading & Rewriting Crime
We can respond to this crisis as a literary community by centering and seriously considering the work that casts prison, prisoners, and the prison state/industry in new light. More
A Literary Activist’s Guide to the PEN America Digital Archive
I find archives strangely comforting…they are reminders of what’s recurred and changed, reminders that others were grappling similarly in the past and theirs are the shoulders we stand on. More