Plus: Interviews with Ricardo Wilson, Katie Kitamura, George Packer

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"It was like watching someone take their last breaths": A Q&A with Afghan American Writer Nadia Hashimi ([link removed])
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Nadia Hashimi ([link removed]) is a pediatrician-turned-author who draws on her Afghan heritage to write novels that grapple with poverty, warfare, history, and women’s rights in Afghanistan. Her latest novel, Sparks Like Stars ([link removed]) , tells the story of a woman who returns to Kabul years after her family fled the 1978 military coup.

Hashimi spoke to PEN America about the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan, how readers and writers can support one another, and the prospects for women’s rights in the country moving forward. Read our conversation with Nadia here ›› ([link removed])

Check out ([link removed]) Nadia Hashimi's recommendations for eight books by and about Afghan women ([link removed]) , for Electric Literature ›› ([link removed])

Write to your member of Congress ([link removed]) to ask that they urge the Biden Administration to protect writers and human rights defenders in Afghanistan now.
Excerpts from DREAMing Out Loud featured in Guernica
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Last month, PEN America released a third volume of its ground-breaking anthology, DREAMing Out Loud: Voices of Migrant Writers ([link removed]) , the first and only annual compilation of literary writing amplifying the experiences of undocumented writers in the U.S. Buy your copy here ›› ([link removed])

Check out five works from the anthology, excerpted in Guernica this week.

"Dear Achiro" ([link removed]) by Achiro P. Olwoch
"Star" ([link removed]) by Yesica Balderrama
"The Show of Growth" ([link removed]) by Nakeisha Cantzlaar
"Rookie and the Djinn" ([link removed]) by t. jahan
"It’s About Altares" ([link removed]) by M. Vázquez Vasquez

DREAMing Out Loud ([link removed]) is PEN America’s tuition-free creative writing workshop series for young immigrant writers, primarily those who are undocumented, DACA recipients, and/or DREAMers who came to the United States when they were children.
Women in Translation Month Reading Series ([link removed])
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Join us for our final Women in Translation Month reading ([link removed]) , happening next week on Thursday, August 26th. Organized under the support of the PEN America Translation Committee ([link removed]) , this virtual reading series has brought together a total of 15 translators, joined by their authors, working in 12 languages from across the world, including Cameroon French, Canadian French, Chinese, Czech, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Register for our final reading here ›› ([link removed])

Submit to the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers by November 15 ([link removed])
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Editors of literary magazines, journals, or cultural websites to submit debut short stories to the 2022 PEN/Dau Prize ([link removed]) through November 15. The twelve winning writers each receive a $2,000 cash prize and will be published by Catapult in their annual anthology, Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize ([link removed]) .

Learn more and submit here ›› ([link removed])

The PEN Ten ([link removed])

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The PEN Ten with Ricardo Wilson: ([link removed]) “As the collection developed, I became more and more interested in exploring smaller moments where a hard-won psychic coherence begins to erode. In these moments, it is often the subtle antagonism between the slippery concepts of truth and history, both personal and collective, that ultimately animates the writing.”

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The PEN Ten with Katie Kitamura: ([link removed]) ““One thing I have learned from having friends who are also writers is that that you can always see the author in the book. . . . I see the imprint of the author in the book in other ways that are to me more interesting and intimate: in the movement of their mind, in the way of telling a story.”
The PEN Pod ([link removed])
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The PEN Pod: Navigating the Debacle in Afghanistan with Ayad Akhtar and George Packer ([link removed])
On this episode of The PEN Pod ([link removed]) , we’re joined by author, Pulitzer-winning playwright, and PEN America president Ayad Akhtar and journalist, novelist, and playwright George Packer. Ayad and George discussed this week's events in Afghanistan, what this moment might mean for the U.S.’s role on the world stage moving forward, and threats to freedom of expression today. Listen now. ([link removed])

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The PEN Pod: Queering an Epic Tale with DREAMing Out Loud's Arjun Dhawan ([link removed])
On this episode of The PEN Pod ([link removed]) , we spoke with Arjun Dhawan, one of the contributors to this year's DREAMing Out Loud: Voices of Migrant Writers ([link removed]) anthology. Arjun spoke with us about his contribution to the anthology, a queer retelling of a classic epic, and the power of migrant voices in literature. Listen now. ([link removed])

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