Audio + Video
2017 Literary Gala: Stephen Sondheim, PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award
But then I thought: There are other repressions besides political ones. There’s the repression of imagination fostered by parents who don’t understand or teachers who aren’t interested. More
2017 Literary Gala: Andrew Solomon
Literature has kept the idea of freedom alive in societies where freedom is forcibly annihilated. If the truth can remain vitalized, it can be shouted from the rooftops. More
Edmund White on Gay Fiction
Once AIDS came along in 1981, gay writers were encouraged to back off from writing sex scenes. We weren’t supposed to awaken any sense of backlash against gays who… More
Zeyar Lynn Reads Two Poems
I have not written my history ... They have written my history, then they have airbrushed me from history. More
Zadie Smith: Dead White Authors and Political Identity
I never felt the need to defend the books I liked. Whatever is the best writing, as far as I can tell or feel, that’s what I’m interested in. More
Galway Kinnell: Nuclear Threat and Poetry
Poets, just like everybody else, have suppressed thoughts about this subject. And no wonder, because it is a subject that, the more you think about, the more hopeless you… More
Natalie Scenters-Zapico: Because They Lack Country
2017 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry winner Natalie Scenters-Zapico reads her poem "Because They Lack Country" at the 2017 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony, with musical accompaniment by Ernesto… More
Scene from Suzan-Lori Parks’s Play “Topdog/Underdog”
Actors Matthew J. Harris and Tyrone Mitchell Henderson perform a scene from playwright Suzan-Lori Parks' play "Topdog/Underdog". More
Blanche Cook on Freedom of Information
"It’s really a question of censorship and political rights on every single level." More
Amos Oz Reading at the 48th International PEN Congress
"Having to read it to you in English translation feels rather like making love through a blanket." More
Support for the freedom to read with exclusive designs by Todd Parr, Mike Curato, Art Spiegelman, and more!
