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Dear Friend,
For those of us who know what it’s like to be a struggling writer, these are scary times.
 If you missed the front page of The New York Times last week, the unemployment claim numbers are staggering. It’s perilous for people across the country, but writers—whether they lecture, teach, wait tables, or otherwise scrape together a living—have been particularly hard hit as events are canceled, venues close, theaters shutter, and freelance work dries up.
That’s why PEN America is stepping up, and we need your help.
PEN America is working to expand its longstanding Writers’ Emergency Fund and putting in place a streamlined process for getting needed cash to published writers who face acute financial need. In the first 48 hours of the revamped fund, we received on average two applications per hour. At that rate, even with modest grants to writers most in need, that fund will quickly be depleted.
Today, I’m asking you to donate to the PEN America Writers’ Emergency Fund.
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