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 with Burhan Sönmez
"We don’t have to think of limiting our freedom. Instead, we need to find ways to cross the borderlines of restrictions and, when it happens, be ready to pay… More
The PEN Ten with Yuri Herrera
"The writer’s responsibility cannot be dictated by any party, politician, sponsor, or cleric. If it is possible to talk about the responsibility of the writer, it is to be… More
The PEN Ten with Saleem Haddad
"When I write in English, I try to make sure that my writing holds a mirror up to the West as much as it does to the Arab world.… More
The PEN Ten with Marlon James
"Writers do have a collective purpose, and that’s to write. I think we writers have managed to convince ourselves that that's not enough. Why is that? Writing can actually… More
The PEN Ten with John Murillo
"It was after the Rodney King verdicts were announced in April of 1992. I remember feeling simultaneously pleased and disappointed with myself that my first response was to want… More
The PEN Ten with Jennifer Clement
"I’m always in search of how the divine and profane coexist and how the powerless find ways to exercise power." More
The PEN Ten with Hayan Charara
"When it comes to the censorship of Arab or Muslim lives, the 'unacceptable parts' are usually not of books or movies but of entire realities." More
The PEN Ten with Carol Edgarian
"I guess you could say that today our job is to work against the collective numbness. To act as the opposing force. Where there’s shadow, bring a lantern." More
The PEN Ten with Martín Espada
"As a poet with a background in law, I am obsessed by the philosophy, the poetics, and the practice of justice. I am obsessed by what Whitman calls, 'the… More
The PEN Ten with Janet Peery
I would caution us to refrain from spending too much time in articulating [writers'] collective purpose for fear of leaching the blood out of the “uncontrollable mystery on the… More