The Emerging Voices Fellowship is an immersive mentorship program for early-career writers who are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. The program is committed to cultivating the careers of Black writers, and serves writers who identify as Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, writers with disabilities, and those living outside of urban centers. Applications for this year’s fellowship are open through March 17, 2021. Learn more and apply now ››
Did you see our announcement last week about the Finalists of the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards? Read Literary Awards Program Director Jane Marchant's essay in The Paris Review about this year's finalists, and check out the full list here ››
Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro joins PEN Out Loud and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop to commemorate Klara and the Sun, his first novel since being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Ishiguro will be joined in conversation with essayist and The New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino to discuss the narrative’s themes of service, sacrifice, and what it means to love. BUY NOW ››
The PEN Ten with Zak Salih: “So much of my journey as a writer has mimicked my earlier journey in coming out, in the sense that for a long time, I would hesitate to call myself a ‘writer’ out of shame. . . But the truth is that I’ve been a writer since I was a child, whether I called myself one or not.”
The PEN Ten with Te-Ping Chen: “So often in China, we tend to focus on the government and think about the Chinese Communist Party as the central character. And yet, there’s so much more to the country—and people with their own highly individual lives and stories—that also feels urgent and important to evoke for readers.”
Writing as Medicine with Sandra Cisneros and Jane Marchant: “I ask you to go to your wounds—what are wounds that you have that give you a special vision for seeing others with that same wound, and to write from that place. That way, you can heal yourself while you’re also assisting others.”
—Sandra Cisneros
Reckoning with Aftershocks with Nadia Owusu: “I was interrogating stories I’d been given that didn’t serve me, and trying to write stories that I could live inside of that would help me move toward healing and deeper connection to my family, deeper understanding, compassion, community, and knowledge of and love for the places that I came from.”
PEN America's new newsletter PEN Points is a curated roundup of the most important free expression-related news from the U.S. and abroad. Sign up now so you can get weekly updates on freedom of expression, and get all the info you need to be a free speech advocate.
