Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, and this year, PEN America is proud to partner with the Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) and Elle Hearns—founder of MPJI—to curate fiction and nonfiction books that center the stories of trans individuals and communities alongside the work of trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer writers. In addition to paving the way for even more narratives about trans identities and individuals, these stories affirm the depth and breadth of trans lives and the need to support, defend, and protect them. Read more ››
Named for the late acclaimed author Madeleine L’Engle and her 10-year written friendship with scholar, writer and former Black Party leader Ahmad Rahman, the PEN America/L’Engle Rahman Prize for Mentorship honors four mentor/mentee pairs in PEN America’s longstanding prison writing mentorship program, which links established writers with those currently incarcerated. Learn more about the history of the prize here and read the four 2020 mentor/mentee pairs' essays reflecting on their experiences here »
Join PEN America for our first national, virtual Gala celebration on Tuesday, December 8. Join us and special guests, including Bono, Dame Emma Thompson, Soledad O'Brien, Joan Baez, and more to celebrate and recognize our PEN/Benenson Courage Award honorees Darnella Frazier and Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, alongside singer and writer Patti Smith, Frank A. Bennack, Jr. of Hearst, and Freedom to Write honoree Xu Zhiyong. Registration is free and includes one free Audible credit, provided by Audible, our Literary Service Award sponsor. Learn more and RSVP here.
Join PEN America and The Silver Unicorn Bookstore for this can't-miss conversation between debut authors Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, finalist for the National Book Award) and Megha Majumdar (A Burning, longlisted for the National Book Award). Learn more and register here for this free virtual event.
› From Trauma to Transcendence with Alice Randall: “One of the things about this book right now is it argues that joy is radical, and Black joy is particularly radical, and it helps you achieve some Black joy right now—it helps all people achieve some honorable, honest joy.”
› Combating Ideological Exclusion with Julia Rose Kraut: “We're seeing in the Trump administration that there is a real focus on immigration restriction, which is at the heart of what we've seen in the past four years."
› The PEN Ten with Valzhyna Mort: “Belarusian bones are unburied bones. Walking in those woods, one finds personal objects with inscriptions scratched upon them—words speaking to us, the living."
› The PEN Ten with Danielle Evans: “My particular identities certainly shape my writing, but I am always thinking in terms of identities—plural. Characterization and narrative tension come from the tension between a character’s inner life and their exterior life."
› The PEN Ten with Cynan Jones: “Writing is not an art, it’s a craft. Like playing the violin, or hitting a baseball, or throwing a clay pot. What you do with the craft is the art.”
Join The New Republic for a livestream of the Salon book series featuring Jonathan Lethem, author, and Laura Marsh, TNR literary editor, as they talk about The Arrest, Lethem’s new novel. Register here »
The Pasadena Literary Alliance presents a unique collection of videos capturing conversations from the 2020 Pasadena Festival of Women Authors, including a video of PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel in conversation with Andrew Marantz and PEN member Sewell Chan as they discuss freedom of speech and the rising influence of social media.
Our friends at USC have launched Air/Light Magazine, an online literary journal where poets, essayists, and fiction writers can share work that doesn’t fit inside boxes, that pushes boundaries, and speaks directly to some essential question or concern. Explore Issue One for work former PEN award-winners and EV mentors Daniel Alarcón, Lilliam Rivera, Lynne Thompson, Chris Abani, Victoria Chang, Douglas Kearny, and Susan Straight.
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