This Pride Month, PEN America Los Angeles invited the ONE Archives Foundation to create a reading list as an extension of their exhibition, Pride Publics: Words and Actions, in which artists, writers, and community organizers were asked to submit a portrait and a short text from themselves, as well as a quote from an LGBTQ+ luminary of their choosing. This reading list features recommendations from artists included in the exhibition, as well as personal notes about about how these texts have given them language and form, possibility and permission. Check out the reading list ››
Acclaimed Nigerian writer, poet, and playwright Wole Soyinka will fly in from Nigeria to offer remarks at PEN America's 2021 Literary Gala celebration in New York City on Tuesday, October 5. Wole Soyinka will present Henry Louis Gates Jr. with the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award. Soyinka will also headline a PEN America event that week, the first U.S. appearance of the prolific writer in the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was Soyinka. . . who told me that my fate was to become a professor of African and African American Studies, and it was past time to abandon my parents’ s dream that I become a physician,” said Gates. “It took a bit for me to accept their advice, but soon I did and the rest they say. . . !”
Soyinka previously delivered the PEN America Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture in 2012, and has been featured as part of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature in New York City. Soyinka is the author of some 40 works including plays, novels, poetry, essays, and biographies.
In the coming months, PEN America will name additional gala honorees, including the recipient of its PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, bestowed on an imprisoned writer; and the recipient of the PEN/Benenson Courage Award for showcasing unparalleled courage to defend free expression.
PEN America’s Writing for Justice Fellowship commissions writers—emerging or established—to create written works of lasting merit that illuminate critical issues related to mass incarceration and catalyze public debate. Our 2021-2022 fellows—three of whom are currently incarcerated—and their mentors will embark on range of projects covering topics such as multigenerational incarceration in the Midwest, prison gerrymandering, restorative justice, sex workers and self-defense laws, COVID-19 responses behind bars, and much more.
Greater Constellations springs from the inspired poetic work created by members of our PEN America Prison Writing community during National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.
During a year when the divide between writers outside and inside was only intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, we sought to combat isolation by creating a shared poetic space in which our dispersed community—writing from prisons and living rooms across the country—could locate inspiration in the same prompts. The poems in these pages are a celebration of our talented and thriving community of writers inside-out.
Don't forget to submit to the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards, which are open through August 1! This coming year, we will confer some $350,000 to writers and translators at all stages of their careers. We hope you'll help us spread the word and encourage the submission of your favorite books published in the 2021 calendar year. Learn more about submitting here ››
LGBTQ+ presses play a vital role in shaping an informed queer consciousness. This Pride Month, PEN America is highlighting the work of a group of regional journalists and news outlets that have helped cultivate an informed LGTBQ+ community. Check out our Q&s with Tammye Nash, managing editor of Dallas Voice, Darian Aaron, editor-at-large of The Reckoning, and Jason Parsley, the associate publisher of South Florida Gay News—on why they do what they do and what must be done so their platforms can thrive.
Join us tonight for the final event in our M Word series. “The Power and Politics of Pop Culture” will explore who holds the power to change harmful and limited representations in popular culture and how Muslim creatives and their allies are changing the game. This virtual town hall-style event will be moderated by oral historian and educator Zaheer Ali and will feature founder of The Black List Franklin Leonard, multidisciplinary artist and cofounder of Boomgen Studios Mahyad Tousi, MuslimARC executive director Margari Hill, historian and journalist Maytha Alhassen, and MPAC’s Hollywood Bureau director Sue Obeidi. Register now ››
The PEN Ten with John Paul Brammer:“You’ve got to really believe in what you’re doing. Getting something made in this climate is difficult. There will be many challenges. So you’ve got to be a person with a real itch, a real desire to write something and put it out into the world.”
The PEN Ten with Choi Eunyoung:“We like to define a person using simplistic labels of background, religion, race, gender, etc. while ignoring the complexities of a person’s entire life and interior. It seems to me that such thinking is the root of violence. No one can be judged with certainty, no life can be told lightly. That may be the truth that fiction seeks to tell.”
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