Interviews & Features
PEN America produces a breadth of interviews and features throughout the year.
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Suchitra Vijayan
It's easy to retreat into despair, easier to forget. So now I write in anger, and I write not to surrender my rage. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Leila Mottley
Stories expand our ideas of our world, or reflect back to us our place in it. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Arinze Ifeakandu
It was clear to me how deeply I loved Nigeria, which made my anger and heartbreak at the dysfunction even more incandescent. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Jay Hopler
Humor allowed me to occupy a perspective that reduced cancer to the butt of a joke. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Ada Limón
"I want to be as free as anyone to write what they want to write and to be human in all those beautiful, necessary, and urgent ways." More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Grzegorz Kwiatkowski
"I think that the moral scandal of crimes and tragedies is visible especially when we see not only victims but also perpetrators and observers." More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Meron Hadero
I think fiction can create a sense of empathy, a pathway to understanding, allowing a reader to reflect on other experiences and lives. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Vauhini Vara
Persist, even when it doesn’t feel like it’s working. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Marwa Helal
I think it’s important to keep playing with this possibility that justice is us, will be us and always has been: our prayers, our songs, our joy, our love. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Chantal V. Johnson
Get used to slowness, failure, doubt, and fallow periods. Learning how to move through this hard stuff is part of the job. More