Program areas at PEN American Center
Free expression programs: Pen america's free expression programs defend writers and journalists and protect the free expression rights in the united states and around the world. This work includes research and reports on topical issues ranging from fraudulent news to censorship in china; advocacy internationally and in the united states in defense of press freedom and on other free expression challenges; and campaigns on policy issues and on behalf of individual writers and journalists under threat.
Literary awards:since 1963, the Pen america literary awards have honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across diverse genres, including fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, sports writing, biography, children's literature, and drama. With the help of our partners, Pen america confers over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants and prizes each year, awarding over $800,000 to writers and translators.
Pen world voices festival: Pen world voices is america's premier international literary festival, attracting the best known writers from across the globe. Since its founding, the festival has presented more than 1,800 writers and artists from 118 countries speaking 56 languages in venues across new york city and los angeles in a four day series of literary events with a human rights focus. The festival was founded by salman rushdie, esther allen and michael roberts in the aftermath of september 11th, 2001, with the aim of broadening channels of dialogue between the united states and the world- a mission that, today, has never been more relevant. (continued on schedule o)the 19th anniversary of the united states' leading international literary festival consists of 40+ events in nyc and 5 events in la, including a keynote lecture by kirkus prize winning author ta-nehisi coates at the the new school's tishman auditorium. Programming includes events with ayad ahktar, reza aslan, elif batuman, anne berest, david blight, mahogany l. browne, jelani cobb, heather cox richardson, jennifer croft, kiran desai, matthew desmond, carolyn forche, ashley c. ford, juan gabriel vasquez, roxane gay, kaitlyn greendige, garth greenwell, khaled hosseini, anton hur, marlon james, han kang, katie kitamura, phil klay, r.f. Kuang, amitava kumar, padma lakshmi, min jin lee, yiyun li, kyle lukoff, rebecca makkai, ottessa moshfegh, sayaka murata, ben okri, jose olivarez, imani perry, geena rocero, stacy schiff, samanta schweblin, mayukh sen, ruta sepetys, kamila shamie, meggie smith, traci sorell, margaret sullivan, maria tatar, amor towles, padma venkatraman, joan walsh, murong xuecen, monica youn, javier zamora, and more.
Public programs; content and outreach; membership; branches; prison writing; Pen america journal; writers fund.