Interviews & Features
PEN America produces a breadth of interviews and features throughout the year.
The PEN Ten with Mark Binelli
I did just have the opportunity to spend some time with a couple of the members of Pussy Riot, and the message they seemed to want to send to… More
An Interview with Michael Scammell
As part of PEN American Center's 90th Anniversary celebration, we spoke to past presidents, staff, and members about the evolution of the organization and most pressing issues of freedom… More
The PEN Ten with Rachel Rosenfelt
The PEN Ten is PEN America's new biweekly interview series curated by Lauren Cerand about writing, freedom of expression, and the notion of public intellectuals in the United States.… More
The PEN Ten with Masha Hamilton
It was about 8PM, already dark. As we greeted a man and his mother in a narrow, unlit street of the camp, soldiers on rooftops swooped down on us.… More
Joy Harjo: A Preview
Joy Harjo will be participating in Speaking in Languages on the Edge and Obsession: Joy Harjo on Time in the 2013 PEN World Voices Festival. Joy Harjo burst onto the international literary… More
Five Questions with Patrice Nganang, Cameroonian Human Rights Advocate & Author
PEN interviews Cameroonian author, professor, and human rights advocate Patrice Nganang on the jailed writer Enoh Meyomesse and how people can help. More
Three Questions with C.D. Wright
Clearly authoritarian states are afraid of even small, solo voices. Less mucked-up states with grandiose images of themselves are afraid of truth-speakers as well. But they can just paper… More
Three Questions with Maggie Nelson
I hope that what we are working for, when we work for freedom of expression, is the right of writers and editors to be irresponsible in language without threat… More
Three Questions with Shane McCrae
Self-obsession is an inevitable by-product of capitalism. And capitalism has become—mistakenly, I think—inextricably tangled up with most folks’ sense of what “the American way” is (but it’s hard not… More
The Stamp Collector: A Review and Interview
On December 11th members of PEN American met in the Center’s offices to send messages of solidarity and support to imprisoned writers and their families around the world. Does… More
Alert Us
Are you an artist at risk or know someone who is?