PEN America: A Journal for Writers and Readers
PEN America: A Journal for Writers and Readers published fiction, nonfiction, poetry, conversation, graphic narrative, and more. PEN America championed international authors and provided first-hand insight into the minds of contemporary writers through provocative symposia.
In 2000, PEN America was named one of the Ten Best New Magazines by Library Journal. PEN America has been a finalist for the Utne Independent Press Award for international coverage, and work has been selected for Best American Essays, Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Prize. Past contributors include Paul Auster, Michael Cunningham, Nikki Giovanni, Marilynne Robinson, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag, John Edgar Wideman, and many others.
Questions can be sent to journal[at]pen.org.
Issues
21: Mythologies
Mythologies considers stories that have been transmitted to us by teachers, writers, parents, politicians,…
20: We the People
The spirit of Frederick Douglass guides us: “not we the white people, not even…
19: Hauntings
Hauntings considers the people, ideas, places, and emotions that draw us back again and…
18: In Transit
In Transit explores the adapted, uprooted, translated, and relocated, following literature that moves through space and time. In…
17: PEN Voices
PEN Voices celebrates the work done at PEN American Center in the past year,…
16: Teachers
Teachers goes back to school with a global roster of writers and artists as…
15: Maps
In Maps, we wanted to explore how writers encounter and examine the fictional topographies…
14: The Good Books
In The Good Books, over 50 writers—including Yiyun Li, Anne Fadiman, Karen Russell, Gary Shteyngart,…
13: Lovers
Who is dear to you? Lovers features short fiction by Don DeLillo, new poetry by John…
12: Correspondences
Correspondences presents e-mail exchanges, letters, telegrams, epistolary fiction, and more. Sam Lipsyte writes to Barry…
11: Make Believe
Make Believe examines—through fiction, poetry, drama, essays, and conversations—the question of belief in all…
10: Fear Itself
In Fear Itself, Edward Albee, Edwidge Danticat, and others think about what fear means…
9: Checkpoints
Checkpoints showcases new work by writers from all over the world examining the literal and…
8: Making Histories
Making Histories showcases writers from all over the world re-imagining the past and representing…
7: World Voices
World Voices captures some of the best conversations from the 2005 World Voices Festival.…
6: Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses features work from Jorge Luis Borges, Mavis Gallant, Monique Truong, William Kennedy, Mary…
5: Silences
Silences features tributes to Samuel Beckett and Gertrude Stein as well as writing from Rikki…
4: Fact/Fiction
Features tributes to John Steinbeck and writing by Jeanette Winterson, Alice Munro, Tim O'Brien,…
3: Tribes
Tribes features PEN tributes to Langston Hughes and Yukio Mishima and features writing by…
2: Home & Away
Home & Away features tributes to James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, and Marcel Proust alongside…
1: Classics
The first issue of PEN's literary journal, Classics features tributes to Virginia Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges,…
Alert Us
Are you an artist at risk or know someone who is?
PEN America On 
Henry Reese, Board Chair of @cityofasylum and advisory committee member of PEN America's @AtRiskArtists was treated and released from the hospital after suffering a facial injury in today's attack. He writes:
"Salman Rushdie is one of the great authors of our time and one of...
NYT: Update on Salman Rushdies's condition via literary agent Andrew Wylie: “The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged." Rushdie on a ventilator and unable to speak. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/08/12/nyregion/salman-rushdie-stabbed-new-york?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxfs4h2Hza3LNE2wFl7RSWtLH_VbXaKViYN10xD2fQdZHdaUyX_x-z-IaJFBkQQOlrt6ClYtAMiIvqsj7eFIK6K_3fOJy9y72PC7-LOpwzbautBWCNDW7HfyCjmsjcFk0qZsydkWq2XNc2qvAQuVq04EqiuMrDpl5RDlUNCCN7KT4Gl4pboX9GxLf4gU9WOtbXCiC3oLPruJdL3gBTA7OX3h94m0j6dJDONlxPa_3LRQofcGWkqxGQyUzb9_vX8ttMtCSw7Z6srfNqgiOwN61xJg0FaZVvrDCsQWqJcNgg_cdqj7jKHGDld7yJNc&smid=tw-share
As we @PENamerica reel from the horrific news of the attack against Salman Rushdie—brilliant writer, free expression defender, & past PEN President—I can think of no better way to honor him than with his own incisive & urgent & words from our 2022 Emergency Writers Congress:
