Interviews & Features
PEN America produces a breadth of interviews and features throughout the year.
The PEN Ten with Behrouz Boochani
I have been living my whole life under a system that wants to define my identity in a certain way and to dictate “who I am.” More
The M Word Stories: Sana Khan
Being Muslim in America means belonging to a diverse group of people in regard to race, beliefs, careers, and backgrounds. This is a beautiful thing because Muslims contribute to… More
The M Word Stories: Faizan Kothari
The M Word seeks to elevate, amplify, and celebrate the contributions of Muslim Americans to our country’s varied and inspiring cultural landscape. Today, we share Faizan Kothari’s story on being a… More
The PEN Ten with Khadijah Queen
I wanted to say that my identity determines my opportunities to make a living, how much or little time I get to spend writing, and what I write about.… More
The PEN Ten with Luis Alberto Urrea
Writers are particularly dangerous...writing strikes the heart and mind so profoundly, in such a way that it can overturn prejudice or hidebound beliefs. More
The M Word Stories: Nasrin Akter
I grew up in a neighborhood of immigrants, where we all understood each other as multicultural and bilingual. We had questions about each other's cultures and customs, but we… More
The PEN Ten with Marcus Wicker
There will always be a special place in my heart for those of us who find ways to express our beliefs and life obsessions absent of politics and megaphones... More
Polish PEN Center: Reckoning with History and Honoring Literature
The deepest problem of Poland, Polish culture, is the Holocaust. This happened on Polish land and had a colossal, although very complicated, influence on the entire Polish society. Although… More
The M Word Stories: Jabeen Akhtar
We are not a monolith group of people. There are layers to us, complexity to our experiences and identities. There are practicing Muslims, secular Muslims, and people from the… More
The PEN Ten with Mychal Denzel Smith
What we are compelled to believe is based on our relationship to power…my work navigates truth by understanding it as a struggle to reshape power. More
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