The PEN Ten Interview Series
The PEN Ten is on the pulse of literary culture to help you discover your next great read. In this interview series, we ask authors 10 questions about their latest work and art.
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Nate Marshall
“At the moments of highest emotional resonance for us, we look toward poetic language to give us something to help encapsulate a large moment.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Morgan Jerkins
“I wanted this book to serve as a living, breathing document to other Black people that in spite of the violences against us, in spite of much time and… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Laura van den Berg
“Story gives us a way to process and inhabit human experience, to feel things through language that we might be less willing to feel in our own lives.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Peter Meech
“In my novel, I wanted to demystify and deglorify violence, explore the protean nature of identity, and write about transcendence.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Lynn Steger Strong
“Stories, I would argue, force readers to look and see and come to their own conclusions, to reconsider arguments they might consider predetermined.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Horror as a genre is “the space of shadows on the wall that we stared at before we went to sleep when we were children and the frightful darkness… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Jean Kyoung Frazier
“I’ve never been great at imagining my future self and the things she may want, things that will be good for her, but each year that goes by, I… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Mark Doty
“Poetry constructs communities across space and time by showing us our common ground. And it reminds us that words are more than just little packages of information.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Zaina Arafat
“So much of my writing is informed by my identity as a queer woman of color and a desire to combat that invisibility and erasure.” More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Megha Majumdar
“Stories help us imagine what it is like to be another person—to strive as they do, to cope as they do, to celebrate as they do—and that’s a vital… More