PEN America – PHENND

Webinar Series: Navigating Tense Moments on Campus – Jul 14,21,28

hillarya — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 17:09:54 +0000

This summer, PEN America is hosting a series of webinars for college staff and administrators on navigating tense moments on campus while upholding commitments to free speech and academic freedom. In these sessions, we’ll explore how institutions can practice accountability after free expression conflicts, respond to speech that causes harm, and meaningfully repair community trust:

Webinar: Surveillance in the Classroom: Tip-Lines, Recording, and Social Media Campaigns – Apr 22

hillarya — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:24:31 +0000

Professors are increasingly feeling watched in their classrooms, whether because of state laws encouraging student complaints, campus policies allowing for classroom recordings, or social media campaigns being used to build public outrage.

This panel will dive into the intersections of virality, teaching, surveillance, and the current political moment, including practical guidance for educators alongside broader cultural context.

Date and Time: Wednesday, April 22, 3:00 PM

Learn more and register.

Webinar: Surveillance on the Quad: Privacy, Safety, and Protest – Apr 16

hillarya — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:21:41 +0000

Campus protest activity in recent years has coincided with an increase in surveillance of students via campus police, facilities management, and technology policies. Some argue that this is necessary to respond to criminal conduct such as vandalism and to support student safety. Others allege that increased monitoring leads to a deep chilling of protected expression, especially given how easy social media makes it to record and expose student demonstrators.

Join a panel of experts to explore the challenges in navigating digital spaces, student safety, free expression, and civil rights from theoretical and practical perspectives.

Date and Time: Thursday, April 16, 3:00 PM

Learn more and register.

Updated Campus Free Speech Guide and Campus for All Workshops

hillarya — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:25:01 +0000

PEN America has unveiled an updated Campus Free Speech Guide, a unique digital resource designed to help students, faculty, and administrators navigate the complex challenges of speech, protest, and academic freedom sweeping U.S. colleges and universities. The guide provides grounding principles, analysis of real conflicts involving free speech, and clear, accessible advice for upholding freedom of expression principles while fostering inclusive campus climates.

Access the guide.

PEN America’s Campus for All virtual workshop series covers the basics of free speech and academic freedom on campus, while equipping administrators, faculty, and staff to respond to a range of challenging scenarios. Our programs draw upon PEN America’s years of experience engaging with universities around the U.S. and our philosophy that campuses can and must harmonize free expression and academic freedom with supporting an inclusive community.

Emerging Voices Fellowship – Jan 31

hillarya — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:18:02 +0000

PEN America’s Emerging Voices Fellowship selects 10 early career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world for a virtual five-month mentorship program. The fellowship includes curated one-on-one mentorship, workshops, introductions to editors, agents, and publishers, and an honorarium of $1,500.

The Emerging Voices Fellowship grew out of PEN America Los Angeles’s forum “Writing the Immigrant Experience,” held at the Los Angeles Central Library in March 1994, which explored the experiences of first- and second-generation immigrant writers. In 1996, PEN America Los Angeles initiated Emerging Voices as a mentorship program designed to provide professional resources to writers seeking financial and creative support to pursue their craft professionally.

Applications are open until January 31, 2026.

Learn more and apply.

Webinar: Building Resilience Against Disinformation: What Comes Next? – Mar 26

hillarya — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 15:50:56 +0000

Efforts to combat disinformation are in a tough spot, and many organizations and researchers are turning away from the problem – even as false information flourishes throughout our politics and social platforms.

In this briefing, PEN America staff and collaborators will share key findings from a pilot program to cultivate community-level resilience against disinformation, coinciding with the release of a new report. We’ll talk about what we did, what worked and what didn’t, and possible new avenues of work for individuals and organizations seeking to counter the pernicious influence of disinformation in the years ahead.

Date and Time: Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Learn more and register.

Emerging Voices Fellowship – Jan 31

hillarya — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 03:05:48 +0000

PEN American invites applications for Emerging Voices Fellowship

Founded in 1922, PEN America champions the freedom to write, recognizes the power of the word to transform the world, and works to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

The organization invites applications for its Emerging Voices Fellowship, a five-month, virtual immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. The program is committed to cultivating the careers of Black writers, and serves writers who identify as Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQ+, immigrants, writers with disabilities, and those living outside of urban centers. Through curated one-on-one mentorship and introductions to editors, agents, and publishers, as well as workshops on editing, marketing, and creating a platform, the fellowship nurtures creative community, provides a professional skill set, and demystifies the path to publication—with the ultimate goal of diversifying the publishing and media industries.

Through the program, 12 fellows will receive an honorarium of $1,500 and will be paired with a mentor who will serve as a source of guidance for the project. Fellowship benefits and components include:

Mentorship and Knowledge of the Business of Books: Five months of guidance from a professional mentor on their current writing project and insider knowledge about publishers and literary agencies through panels and Q&As.

Community: Writing and craft conversations with accomplished visiting authors, one public event featuring reading of new work by current fellows, and a one-year membership in PEN America.

A Writer’s Toolkit: A professional headshot; deals and discounts for classes and programs from partner organizations; a submission guide for literary journals, agents, residencies, and fellowships; and masterclasses and workshops in genre, reading and voice technique, copyediting, and other relevant topics.

To be eligible, applicants must be at least 21 years old at time of application. Applicants need not be a United States permanent resident and/or citizen but must reside in the U.S. at the time of application and during the duration of the fellowship. Applicants cannot be enrolled in a degree-granting program at the time of application; cannot be a recipient of an advanced degree in fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry; and cannot have one or more books published through major or independent publishers, university presses, or established presses, nor have a book under contract to a publisher at the time of application. Chapbooks or work published in literary journals are acceptable.

There is a $25 fee to submit the application, but application fee waivers are available for those facing financial difficulties.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the PEN America website.

Deadline: January 31, 2024

Bare Life Review Grants for immigrant writers – Jul 21

hillarya — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 01:01:12 +0000

PEN America invites applications for Bare Life Review Grants program

Founded in 1922, PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide, with a mission to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

PEN America invites applications for its PEN/Bare Life Review Grants program, which recognizes literary works by immigrant and refugee writers. Two grants of $5,000 each will be awarded to foreign-born writers based in the U.S. and to writers living abroad who hold refugee/asylum seeker status, for works of a literary nature, including fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry. Scholarly or academic work is not eligible. The project must be an unpublished work-in-progress that will not be published prior to April 1, 2025, as the grants are intended to support the completion of a manuscript.

To be eligible, the submitted project must be the work of a single individual, written in or translated into English. In the case of translated works, the grant will be conferred to the original author.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the PEN America website.

Deadline: July 21, 2023

Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History – Jun 1

hillarya — Tue, 10 May 2022 01:55:34 +0000

PEN America invites applications for Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History

To that end, it is inviting applications for the PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History. Two grants of $15,000 will be awarded to recognize literary works of nonfiction that use oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement.

The submitted project must be the work of a single individual, written in English. It must be a work of literary nonfiction or an unpublished work-in-progress of literary nonfiction (scholarly/academic writing is not eligible). Works must not be published prior to April 1, 2023, as the grants are intended to support the completion of a final book.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the PEN America website.

Deadline: June 1, 2022

Emerging Voices Fellowship, PEN America – Jan 31

hillarya — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 16:22:02 +0000

Applications for the Emerging Voices Fellowship are due January 31st!

The Fellowship provides a virtual five-month immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. The program is committed to cultivating the careers of Black writers, and serves writers who identify as Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQ+, immigrants, writers with disabilities, and those living outside of urban centers. Through curated one-on-one mentorship and introductions to editors, agents, and publishers, in addition to workshops on editing, marketing, and creating a platform, the five-month fellowship nurtures creative community, provides a professional skill-set, and demystifies the path to publication—with the ultimate goal of diversifying the publishing and media industries.

Learn more and apply.

The Fluidity of Identity and Boundaries: A Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month Reading List

hillarya — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 16:38:21 +0000

This Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, PEN America is proud to present a reading list highlighting books from recent longlisters, finalists, winners, and judges of the PEN America Literary Awards. This list was curated by Literary Awards Intern Jasmine Gonzalez. In curating this list, Jasmine carefully selected titles that push boundaries and highlight the fluidity of identity in the Latinx community, even in instances where that fluidity has been met with resistance. As each of the titles here reveal, navigating the experiences that come with pushing boundaries and noticing fluidity can also lead to discoveries that might impact one’s self or community.

Check out the reading list.

Dreaming Out Loud: An Anthology of Migrant Writing

hillarya — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 20:59:23 +0000

PEN America has released a third volume of its ground-breaking anthology, DREAMing Out Loud: Voices of Migrant Writers, the first and only annual compilation of literary writing amplifying the experiences of undocumented writers in the U.S.

Check out excerpts from the anthology below:
“Stateless: 2053” by Juan David Gastolomendo (LitHub)
“A Car Ride” by Erika Apupalo (Encounters Magazine)
“Eternal Nostalgia” by Annmarie Gadjos (Encounters Magazine)

These 48 plays, personal essays, short stories, and poems announce loudly and proudly that our writers will not be silenced or ignored; they will speak up, act out, and fight back to demand the rights and recognition they and their families deserve.

Purchase a copy here.

Women in Translation Month Reading Series – Aug 12,19 & 26

hillarya — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 20:53:50 +0000

August is here, and it’s time to celebrate Women in Translation (#WiT) Month! This year, our virtual reading series will gather voices from across time zones for an international celebration. Organized under the support of the PEN America Translation Committee, these events will bring 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. Each reading will be followed by a brief Q&A discussion, time-permitting.

Dates and Times: August 12, 19 and 26, 2:00-3:30 PM

Learn more about each session and register here.

And check out the CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses)’s reading list for Women in Translation Month, for which CLMP asked several independent literary presses and magazines to share some of the literature they have published that is both written and translated by women. Check out the reading list here.

Introducing Greater Constellations: A 2021 Prison Writing NaPoWriMo Zine

hillarya — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 23:40:49 +0000

Though they have been around since at least the beginning of the 20th century, zines—short for “magazines”—became most commonly associated with the do-it-yourself and punk aesthetic sensibilities of the late 1970s and 1980s. Easy and affordable to make—often held together with tape, run off a photocopier, and assembled by hand—zines have always been an accessible grassroots method for artists, musicians, and writers to share their work with peers and collaborators, without waiting for the fickle approval of gatekeepers.

Drawing on this rich history of community-oriented creative dissemination, our Greater Constellations zine springs from the inspired poetic work created by members of our PEN America Prison Writing community during National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

Learn more and download the zine.

Words and Actions: A Pride Month Reading List from One Archives Foundation

hillarya — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 23:36:43 +0000

This Pride Month, PEN America Los Angeles invited the ONE Archives Foundation to create a reading list as an extension of their exhibition, Pride Publics: Words and Actions, in which artists, writers, and community organizers were asked to submit a portrait and a short text from themselves, as well as a quote from an LGBTQ+ luminary of their choosing. This reading list features recommendations from artists included in the exhibition, as well as personal notes about about how these texts have given them language and form, possibility and permission.

Check out the reading list.

Power to the People: A World Voices Reading List

hillarya — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 15:45:42 +0000

The PEN World Voices Festival was held in May. We’ve compiled a list of books that exemplify this year’s theme, Power to the People, from authors who participated in this year’s Festival. The stories presented here challenge misconceptions, reimagine new worlds, and instill hope.

Check out PEN America’s reading list here and see all the books featured in this year’s Festival here.

T Book Club: A Discussion on Invisible Man – Jun 17

hillarya — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 15:39:39 +0000

Join The New York Times for T Magazine’s book club, which focuses on classic works of American literature, for a conversation on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. On June 17 at 7:00 PM watch a virtual discussion about the book, featuring writer, scholar and T writer at large Adam Bradley, that will address questions from readers.

Learn more and RSVP.

Breathe into the Ground: 2020 Prison Writing Awards Anthology

hillarya — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 15:35:32 +0000

PEN America’s third annual Prison Writing Anthology, Breathe into the Ground, is an impressive collection of poetry, nonfiction, and drama from incarcerated writers in the United States compiled amid the devastating pandemic. Included in these writings are personal letters from the writers about their experiences during the pandemic, original artwork provided by incarcerated artists through the Justice Arts Coalition , and moving letters from the mentorship pairs organized through the PEN America/L’Engle-Rahman Award in Mentorship.

Learn more and purchase your copy here.

Asian Pacific American Month: A Reading List

hillarya — Sun, 30 May 2021 21:00:43 +0000

Our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Reading list brings you a list of books that expand upon and amplify Asian Pacific American stories, histories, and authors. Reflecting upon how the recent acts of anti-Asian violence and racism have roots in the history of American racism and exclusion at large, we selected a range of books that acknowledge how these histories connect to our present.

Check out the reading list.

Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History – June 1

hillarya — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 03:04:41 +0000

PEN America Invites Applications for Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History

To help advance this mission, the organization is inviting applications for the PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History. Through the program, two grants of $15,000 will be awarded to support a literary work of nonfiction that uses oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement. Grants may be used to help maintain or complete an ongoing project and oral history must be a significant component of the project and its research.

The submitted project must be the work of a single individual, writing in English, and must be a work of literary nonfiction an unpublished work-in-progress work of literary nonfiction (scholarly/academic writing is not eligible).

See the PEN America website for complete program guidelines and application instructions.

Deadline: June 1, 2021