Interviews & Features
PEN America produces a breadth of interviews and features throughout the year.
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Laura van den Berg
“Story gives us a way to process and inhabit human experience, to feel things through language that we might be less willing to feel in our own lives.” More
The PEN Pod: On the Power of Poetry with Natasha Trethewey
“Poetry can save us. It can, in many ways, unite us because of the sheer intimacy of a single voice that might reach someone.” More
The PEN Pod: Tough Questions with Suzanne Nossel
“There are people who have fought against authoritarian overreach around the world—how do they feel about it now that it’s happening in American cities?” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Peter Meech
“In my novel, I wanted to demystify and deglorify violence, explore the protean nature of identity, and write about transcendence.” More
The PEN Pod: A Reckoning in Hollywood with Kim Masters
“True power—defined as the ability to get something made because you feel like it, because you think it’s a good idea—is in very few hands.” More
The PEN Pod: Confronting a History of Hate with Seyward Darby
“The alt-right was frequently described as angry white men. . . but it struck me as wrongheaded to assume that women would not be in the movement.” More
The PEN Pod: Tough Questions with Suzanne Nossel
“People are coming to grips with the legacy of racism in profound ways. And it’s forcing this examination of what kinds of speech are appropriate.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Lynn Steger Strong
“Stories, I would argue, force readers to look and see and come to their own conclusions, to reconsider arguments they might consider predetermined.” More
The PEN Pod: On Systemic Racism in Hollywood with the Writers Guild of America West
Leaders of the Committee of Black Writers at WGA West talked to The PEN Pod about racial justice and equity in Hollywood. More
The PEN Pod: On Race, Place, and Belonging with Sejal Shah
“I’m certainly thinking about kinship. . . What do we owe our neighbors and fellow humans. . . for whom to be alive is a risk?” More