Interviews & Features
PEN America produces a breadth of interviews and features throughout the year.
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Tyriek White
It is why there is so much investment, politically and even historically, in the erasure of books by certain communities or voices. Writing about alternate paths forward can create… More
Banned in the USA Spotlight: Maia Kobabe
Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer is a coming-of-age graphic novel that has been the most banned in U.S. schools. Kobabe tells PEN America what books like hers mean. More
Banned in the USA Spotlight: Mike Curato
Mike Curato's Flamer was tied for the most banned book in the fall of 2022 in PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans. He tells PEN America why he… More
Russian Independent Media Archive Preserves More Than Two Decades of History
The new Russian Independent Media Archive is working to recover and offer safekeeping for the work of 70-plus Russian news outlets. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Victor LaValle
What are the stories—the myths—that we begin to learn from our earliest days? And how is the relation of that history shaped by the people who share it? More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Rachel Heng
The work of fiction is to evoke emotion, to pose a certain set of questions and contradictions, to create a system of meaning through the building of a world… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Rushi Vyas
I’d rather tend toward over-sharing than under-sharing. I’d rather tend toward more understanding than less. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Sunu Chandy
I hope that this book helps to reflect that as LGBTQIA+ people, and as women, and as people of color, we must have a society where we can control… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Gina Chung
I really enjoy writing about animals in particular because they’re so much more honest than we are about what they need and want, and they have a completely different… More
Oscar Hokeah Binds Together the Threads of Native American Experience in His Debut Novel Calling for a Blanket Dance
Hokeah Was One of Two Writers of Native Heritage to Receive Book Prizes at the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony By Suzanne Trimel (NEW YORK)— Oscar Hokeah writes fiction grounded… More