This Pride Month, we're furthering our commitment to amplifying Black voices by championing the writing of the LGBTQIA+ BIPOC literary community. We at PEN America affirm our solidarity with the Black literary community, acknowledging the long road to liberation ahead.

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Celebrating Debuts from Black LGBTQIA+ Authors

From the PEN World Voices Festival Team

This week’s reading list aims to amplify the works of recently debuted Black queer writers—from novels to poetry collections, essay collections to young adult titles. We gathered these books to celebrate their existence, the artists who created them, and the foundation they establish for reimagining the future. Read more »

PEN America encourages you to support these authors and your independent and Black-owned bookstores by ordering one or more of their books from a Black-owned bookstore in your state.

Temperature Check is a rapid response series from PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program, featuring original creative reportage by incarcerated writers, accompanied by podcast interviews with criminal justice reform experts on the pandemic’s impact in United States’ prisons. Sign up here to receive the latest issue in your inbox, a special volume featuring book reviews of works that contribute to critical public dialogue about mass incarceration.

LISTEN

The PEN Pod

› On the Importance of Centering Marginalized Narratives with Jaquira Díaz: "I would hope that what queer kids of color can find in my book is the truth. . . . Some sort of validation knowing that they’re not alone."

› Putting Tech Under the Microscope with Ainissa Ramirez: "Since so many things are being put underneath the microscope, I hope that technology, too, will be put there.”

› What It Means To Be Essential with Karla Cornejo Villavicencio: "We’re at a moment of reckoning where people are realizing the problems that the police state really represents."

LISTEN

These Truths

› Navigating Truths with Ishmael Beah and Alexis Okeowo: Sierra Leonean-American author Ishmael Beah and New Yorker staff writer Alexis Okeowo discuss how fiction can help us navigate some of the most unrelenting humanitarian crises of our age.

› Prison & Justice Writing with Reginald Dwayne Betts: We hear from poet Reginald Dwayne Betts and folks from PEN America’s Prison & Justice Writing Program about how literature deepens our understanding of mass incarceration at a pivotal moment in time.

› A Letter From a Black Woman in Publishing on the Industry’s Cruel, Hypocritical Insistence That Words Matter - Mariah Stovall, P&W

› An Essential Reading List for Black Liberation, Brought to You by the Schomburg Center - Hyperallergic

Into the Streets: Writers Recommend Books of Protest
We asked authors, historians, and scholars to share one book that has inspired and informed them as they write, create, and dissent. Read more ››

Celebrating Pride Month
Recommended Reading
A selection of the best poetry, interviews, readings, and more by LGBTQIA+ writers to revisit. Read more ››

Black Literature – Past, Present, and Future: A Reading List
While history has proven that interest in Black literature surges during periods of social unrest, the canon of Black literature did not suddenly appear in these moments. Black literature is American literature. Read more ››

Words to Revisit

› The PEN Ten with Brandon Taylor
› The PEN Ten with Rivers Solomon
› The PEN Ten with Romeo Oriogun
› A PEN Out Loud Interview with Nicole Dennis-Benn
› A PEN Out Loud Interview with Marlon James and Salman Rushdie

Submit Now:

From now through August 15, 2020, publishers and agents may submit to our Book Awards, and Members may nominate writers for our esteemed Career Achievement Awards.

In 2021, with the help of our partners, PEN America will confer over twenty distinct awards and grants, awarding over $350,000 to writers and translators. Learn more.

Have you seen the latest from the PEN World Voices Festival? We curated a digital version of the Festival that includes a suite of podcasts, at-home videos, interviews, and musical playlists. Click here to check out our virtual celebration of the beauty and power of storytelling.

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