We're delighted to present this essay by Jennifer Cheng, our incredible Literary Outreach/Education Programs intern who joined us this past winter/spring, about an experience at an author visit that impacted her. Bringing Worlds to Life: Fostering Empathy and...
DATE | April 19, 2021
LOCATION | Online Event
Join us for Crisis, featuring three novelists whose work is informed by the possibility of impending crisis, and see where they lead us – from familiar landscapes to dystopian extremes.
T.C. Boyle (World’s End, The Terranauts), Jenny Offill (Weather, Dept. of Speculation), and Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death, Lagoon) will be in conversation with moderator Sean Murphy (Founder & Executive Director, 1455).
Sean Murphy
Nnedi Okorafor
Jenny Offill
T.C. Boyle
We are excited to announce that Deesha Philyaw's The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (West Virginia University Press) has been selected as the winner of the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction!"Choosing from among our five exceptional finalists was a supremely difficult...
Souvankham Thammavongsa
Judges have selected the five finalists for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America's most prestigious peer-juried literary prize. The finalists are The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw (West Virginia University Press), Disappear Doppelgänger...
DATE | March 11, 2021 at 7pm ET
LOCATION | Online Event
Refuge featured authors who have explored topics of immigration, identity, and home in their work, at a time when these issues are especially urgent.
This insightful and challenging discussion of refuge and home featured authors Aleksandar Hemon (Nowhere Man, The Lazarus Project), Abdi Nor Iftin (Call Me American), Souvankham Thammavongsa (How to Pronounce Knife), and moderator Matthew Davis (Founding Director, Alan Cheuse International Writers Center).
Catch the recording and transcript of this event now!
Matthew Davis
Abdi Nor Iftin
Aleksandar Hemon
G. Willow Wilson
Mathangi Subramanian
Nicole Dennis-Benn
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
Scattered Lights by Steve Wiegenstein
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
Nine Shiny Objects by Brian Castleberry
Mother Daughter Widow Wife by Robin Wasserman
The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe
Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear by Matthew Salesses
Dear Ann by Bobbie Ann Mason
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
Yaa Gyasi
Deesha Philyaw
Steve Wiegenstein
Danielle Evans
Brian Castleberry
Robin Wasserman
Rufi Thorpe
Matthew Salesses
Bobbie Ann Mason
K-Ming Chang
Airea D. Matthews
N.K. Jemisin
Tananarive Due
Sheree Renée Thomas
Maria Hinojosa
Jennifer Clement
Luis Alberto Urrea
Hannah Allam
Susan Muaddi Darraj
Osama Alomar
Laila Halaby
Elizabeth Hand
Mark Z. Danielewski
Brian Evenson
Dan Chaon
Scott McCloud
Ebony Flowers
Gene Luen Yang
Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
Sing to It by Amy Hempel
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian
Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
Douglas Stuart
Min Jin Lee
DATE | February 9, 2021 at 7:00 PM
LOCATION | Online Event
Intersections featured authors who have engaged with intersectional identities in their work. We were joined by novelists Tope Folarin, Min Jin Lee, and Douglas Stuart, as well as moderator and book critic Bethanne Patrick, for a complicated and challenging discussion of intersectionality in literature.
NOW AVAILABLE: The event recording and transcript.
We are excited to announce that LeVar Burton, award-winning actor and longtime host of Reading Rainbow, has been named the inaugural PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion. Launched in conjunction with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s 40th Anniversary, this annual...
We are thrilled to announce the longlist of books for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America’s most prestigious peer-juried literary prize. The longlist includes the following ten titles: Bestiary by K-Ming Chang (One World)Dear...
Director of Education Programs
Director of Literary Programs
Ramunda Lark Young
Russell Hornsby
Angie Thomas
Reginald Dwayne Betts
DaMaris B. Hill, PhD
Luis J. Rodriguez
Amber Sparks
Carmen Maria Machado
Kelly Link
Lesley Nneka Arimah
Isaac Fitzgerald
Esmé Weijun Wang
Zack McDermott
Media and Communications Associate
Executive Director
Nuestras Voces Associate
Winner of the 2020 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story Lydia Davis's ESSAYS ONE, her first nonfiction book, was published in 2019 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Lydia Davis is the author of VARIETIES OF DISTURBANCE, which was a National Book Award...
Board Chair
Board President
PEN/FAULKNER LITERARY CHAMPION
LeVar Burton is an actor, director, educator, and cofounder of the award-winning Skybrary app; former host and executive producer of PBS’s Reading Rainbow, and a lifelong children’s literacy advocate. He hosts his own podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, sharing the best short fiction and handpicked by the best voice in podcasting.
Willy Vlautin
Richard Powers
Ivelisse Rodriguez
Blanche McCrary Boyd
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
The Night Swimmers by Peter Rock
Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li
Amy Hempel
Ben Lerner
G. Willow Wilson
Mathangi Subramanian
Your support enables PEN/Faullkner Foundation programs such as Literary Conversations, Education Programs for DC public schools and the PEN/Faulkner awards.
Thank you!
FOLLOW US
To make sure you never miss out on one of PEN/Faulkner’s inspiring literary programs and award celebrations, sign up for our email list.