Interviews & Features
PEN America produces a breadth of interviews and features throughout the year.
The PEN Ten with Safiya Sinclair
I think the responsibility of the writer is to say something true, to give voice to untold histories, to say something sincere about personhood, to speak from the margins… More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Alex Gino
Writers both expose what is happening in society and give escape from it. We share reality and explore alternatives. More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Juno Dawson
I see myself as a storyteller. I think it’s a universal language we all speak, and stories have the power to unite us as a race. More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Meg Medina
It’s our job to name the human experience so that we don’t forget the ugly and the truly beautiful. It’s our job to write the stories that invite a… More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Coe Booth
I think our responsibility is to tell the truth. We’re writing for discriminating readers who don’t want to read stories that water down their experiences or belittle the intensity… More
The PEN Ten: Banned Books Edition with Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Discretion is acceptable. Sensitivity is important. But censorship has no place in our public life. More
The PEN Ten with Sorayya Khan
I’ve always believed that writing is a political act, a way to explore injustice, a place to contemplate complicity, forgiveness, and the possibility of a better world. More
PEN Uyghur Center: Powerful Literature in a Fleeting Language
As a Uyghur writer, I cannot truly understand or write any novel, story, or poem in Chinese. It isn’t possible because Chinese is not my language… More
“We Have Not Lived Through the Peak of Our Hardships”: An Interview with Andrey Kurkov
Nowadays, 80 percent of young authors write politically engaged literature, trying to touch upon very painful topics, the topics of refugees, immigrants, the topic of responsibility for the future... More
The PEN Ten with William Brewer
For me, at the atomic level, the obsession around which all my other obsessions orbit is seeing and making others see… More
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