As voters in the state of Iowa officially open the American presidential primary season tonight, PEN America announces its free-speech advocacy effort.
PEN America Warns Proposed Missouri Bill Could Jail Librarians
A proposed Missouri state bill ‘relating to parental oversight of public library with penalty provisions’ alarms freedom-of-expression advocates.
Kazakhstan’s Rollan Seisenbayev on Ecological Disaster: ‘I Heard My Heartbeat’
‘The Aral Sea did not dry up by itself. It was killed,’ says Rollan Seisenbayev, whose ‘The Dead Wander in the Desert’ is longlisted by PEN America.
PEN America Announces 2020 Longlists in Its $330,000 Literary Awards
Both the translation and poetry-in-translation prizes are included in the eight longlists released by PEN America for its 2020 literary awards program.
Ethiopian Author Befeqadu Hailu Named as PEN Writer of Courage 2019
Lemn Sissay has named Ethiopia’s Befeqadu Hailu to English PEN’s Honor. And PEN America’s Jennifer Egan blasts the Nobel’s choice of Peter Handke.
Human Rights Proponents Hail Mauritania’s Release of Mkhaïtir
Just days before a peaceful transfer of power in Nouakchot, writer Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaïtir was released and removed from the country for safety.
Words Without Borders June: ‘The Queer I’ in Early Summer
‘Words Without Borders’ brings together translations from Korean, Chinese, Icelandic, French, and more, all on topics relative to sexuality and identity.
PEN America Slams Trump, English PEN Names Sissay for Pinter Prize
PEN chapters on both sides of the Atlantic are launching new criticism of Donald Trump and a 2019 Pinter Prize laureate in the UK.
PEN America Names Its 2019 Literary Award Laureates: $370,000 in Winnings
The best literature, says PEN America president Jennifer Egan at the organization’s 2019 awards in New York City ’embodies hard truths, contradictions, and discoveries.’
PEN America Approaches Its Awards Night With News Media Appearances
Ahead of PEN America’s literary awards night, the organization’s president Jennifer Egan tells CNN, ‘I feel like the next phase is going to be an engagement with the truth.’