Illustrated PEN

The Illustrated PEN aspires to be at the intersection of literature, journalism, and visual storytelling, where images and words come together in an ever-emerging and essential creative form. We feature fiction and nonfiction graphic narratives, comics journalism and illustrated reportage, stories of social justice, and personal stories that can’t be told through words alone.

Dias de Consuelo

My mama put me into a school and I would run home during the afternoon break. Then I would cook lunch and get dinner ready while my classmates ate… More

Everything is Flammable

They remind me of the ghost cats. Does anyone else experience ghost cats? That feeling where, just as you're falling asleep, cats seem to walk across you... More

Requiem for a Hot Comb

Getting your hair straightened for the first time was like being inducted into a black women’s secret society. The sisterhood of perpetual hair maintenance. The sisterhood had an awful... More

Tenements, Towers & Trash

The exact history of the egg cream is of some debate, but the most popular claim is that it was created in the 1890s by Louis Auster… More

A Story of Men

Welcome aboard flight BA 763 to London, Heathrow—would you please turn off all electronic devices, return your seats to the… More