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...

Blog

CRISIS
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
Sean Murphy

Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi Okorafor

Jenny Offill
Jenny Offill

T.C. Boyle
T.C. Boyle
Announcing the winner of the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
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
Souvankham Thammavongsa
Announcing the Finalists for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
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...

REFUGE
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
Matthew Davis

Abdi Nor Iftin
Abdi Nor Iftin

Aleksandar Hemon
Aleksandar Hemon

G. Willow Wilson
G. Willow Wilson

Mathangi Subramanian
Mathangi Subramanian

Nicole Dennis-Benn
Nicole Dennis-Benn

Transcendent Kingdom
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

Scattered Lights
Scattered Lights by Steve Wiegenstein

The Office of Historical Corrections
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

Nine Shiny Objects
Nine Shiny Objects by Brian Castleberry

Mother Daughter Widow Wife
Mother Daughter Widow Wife by Robin Wasserman

The Knockout Queen
The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe

Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear
Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear by Matthew Salesses

Dear Ann
Dear Ann by Bobbie Ann Mason

Bestiary
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

Yaa Gyasi
Yaa Gyasi

Deesha Philyaw
Deesha Philyaw

Steve Wiegenstein
Steve Wiegenstein

Danielle Evans
Danielle Evans

Brian Castleberry
Brian Castleberry

Robin Wasserman
Robin Wasserman

Rufi Thorpe
Rufi Thorpe

Matthew Salesses
Matthew Salesses

Bobbie Ann Mason
Bobbie Ann Mason

K-Ming Chang
K-Ming Chang

Airea D. Matthews
Airea D. Matthews

N.K. Jemisin
N.K. Jemisin

Tananarive Due
Tananarive Due

Sheree Renée Thomas
Sheree Renée Thomas

Maria Hinojosa
Maria Hinojosa

Jennifer Clement
Jennifer Clement

Luis Alberto Urrea
Luis Alberto Urrea

Hannah Allam
Hannah Allam

Susan Muaddi Darraj
Susan Muaddi Darraj

Osama Alomar
Osama Alomar

Laila Halaby
Laila Halaby

Elizabeth Hand
Elizabeth Hand

Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski

Brian Evenson
Brian Evenson

Dan Chaon
Dan Chaon

Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud

Ebony Flowers
Ebony Flowers

Gene Luen Yang
Gene Luen Yang

Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez
Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez

The Topeka School
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner

Sing to It
Sing to It by Amy Hempel

The Bird King
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

A People’s History of Heaven
A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian

Patsy
Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn

Douglas Stuart
Douglas Stuart

Min Jin Lee
Min Jin Lee

INTERSECTIONS
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.
LeVar Burton Is Our Inaugural PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion
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...
Announcing the Longlist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
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...

Lacey N. Dunham
Director of Education Programs

Shahenda Helmy
Director of Literary Programs

Ramunda Lark Young
Ramunda Lark Young

Russell Hornsby
Russell Hornsby

Angie Thomas
Angie Thomas

Reginald Dwayne Betts
Reginald Dwayne Betts

DaMaris B. Hill, PhD
DaMaris B. Hill, PhD

Luis J. Rodriguez
Luis J. Rodriguez

Amber Sparks
Amber Sparks

Carmen Maria Machado
Carmen Maria Machado

Kelly Link
Kelly Link

Lesley Nneka Arimah
Lesley Nneka Arimah

Isaac Fitzgerald
Isaac Fitzgerald

Esmé Weijun Wang
Esmé Weijun Wang

Zack McDermott
Zack McDermott

Amanda Liaw
Media and Communications Associate

Gwydion Suilebhan
Executive Director

Adriana Thornton
Nuestras Voces Associate

Lydia Davis
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...

Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Board Chair

Susan Keselenko Coll
Board President

LeVar Burton
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
Willy Vlautin

Richard Powers
Richard Powers

Ivelisse Rodriguez
Ivelisse Rodriguez

Blanche McCrary Boyd
Blanche McCrary Boyd

Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

We Cast a Shadow
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

The Night Swimmers
The Night Swimmers by Peter Rock

Where Reasons End
Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li

Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel

Ben Lerner
Ben Lerner

G. Willow Wilson
G. Willow Wilson

Mathangi Subramanian
Mathangi Subramanian
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