Interviews & Features
PEN America produces a breadth of interviews and features throughout the year.
Three Questions with TC Tolbert
The word obliterated comes from the Latin, meaning “to strike out, or erase, what has been written.” I believe I (my-self) am both obliterator and obliterated. I was made… More
The PEN Ten with Metta Sáma
"The responsibility of this writer is to be ethical, conscientious, non-judgmental, curious, free free free." More
The PEN Ten with Sonia Guiñansaca
"Erasure happens when it comes to the history/lives/contribution/resistance/survival of people of color in America, and so with my pen I make sure that they exist and are remembered in… More
The PEN Ten with Dunya Mikhail
"When I came to America, I found that censorship had no home on the ground, but it was somehow in the air, implicit. Speech here is usually restricted to… More
The PEN Ten with Stephanie Kuehn
"...there are plenty of adults who feel young adult literature requires hope. I feel differently, which goes back to truth-telling. I believe teens deserve uncomfortable truths." More
The PEN Ten with Ben H. Winters
"Fiction is built out of the day-to-day stuff of life, words and people and events, but it’s different and it’s meant to be different. So our collective purpose is… More
2015 PEN Translation Prize: Four Questions for Winner Denise Newman
"The great pleasure of translating is being able to enter into the timelessness of the text...there’s comfort in such concentrated work. It must be the language equivalent of what… More
2015 PEN Poetry in Translation Award: Four Questions for Winner Eliza Griswold
"We thought it would be a remarkable project to look at the impact that more than a decade of U.S. occupation had had on the lives and songs of… More
The PEN Ten with Ian Buruma
As far as writing is concerned I am obsessed by clarity, which can be a weakness. Great art must leave room for ambiguity, even mystery. More
The PEN Ten with John Branch
"As a newspaper reporter, I'm quite used to being called names. You may have heard that we're not the most popular people." More
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