Interviews & Features
PEN America produces a breadth of interviews and features throughout the year.
The PEN Ten: An Interview with José Vadi
“Writing about my history and those histories I’ve inherited about my family from different family members has allowed me to embrace the missing gaps of the collective familiar timeline.” More
The PEN Pod: On Reporting on Russia and the Climate for Foreign Journalists with Sarah Rainsford
“The climate for journalism and generally in Russia is closing down. It’s changing, it’s getting harder, it’s getting tougher. And for some reason, I appear to have been singled… More
The PEN Pod: On Authoritarianism, Abortion Restrictions, and Protecting the Freedom to Learn
“They are people who deserve our support, who’ve been working as human rights defenders inside their countries, who now are faced with the loss of their livelihood.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Steven Reigns
“I identify as a gay man. The experience of growing up as an outsider positioned me to be an observer. I think everything I do is informed by my… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Marisel Vera
“We, Puerto Ricans, must claim the historical truth of our ancestors and our homeland that we can learn about through stories.” More
The PEN Pod: Telling the Stories of New Orleans with Maurice Carlos Ruffin
“In New Orleans, sometimes they call people who are involved in storytelling or in music or the arts—they call them culture bearers. We bear the culture. We carry the… More
The PEN Pod: Looking Back at the War on Terror with Spencer Ackerman
“What’s on display in Afghanistan is the results of 20 years of war. It’s not a departure from 20 years of war. . . . It is not something… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Kia Corthron
“For artists working in fiction, we have more protection as our work is addressing what has been exposed. . . . The greater peril is self-censorship, which often starts… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Morgan Parker
“I tend to approach truth in my work as a figment, a construction. A lot of that is because it relies on the stringency of linear time, chasing a… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Mirin Fader
“Though [the Antetokounmpo brothers] didn’t have much money, they had each other. They were, in a sense, each other’s refuge.” More
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