PEN America
Encyclopedia
PEN America: A Journal for Writers and Readers is a semi-annual literary journal that publishes fiction, poetry, conversation, criticism, and memoir. It is published by PEN American Center
in New York City
. Contributors include Yousef Al-Mohaimeed
, Paul Auster
, Michael Cunningham
, Lydia Davis
, Petina Gappah
, Nikki Giovanni
, Rawi Hage
, Shahriar Mandanipour, Colum McCann
, Michael Ondaatje
, Marilynne Robinson
, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag
, John Edgar Wideman
, and many others.
PEN America was founded in 2000 by M Mark, then a member of PEN's Board of Trustees. In its first year, PEN America was named one of the "Ten Best New Magazines" by Library Journal
. The magazine was nominated for an Utne Independent Press Award for international coverage in 2010. The essay "Ghost Writer," by Cynthia Ozick
, published in PEN America 9: Checkpoints, was reprinted in The Best American Essays 2009 (part of The Best American Series). Fiction from the magazine has been selected for the Pushcart Prize
in 2009 and 2010.
In February 2009, Edward Albee
, André Aciman
, Anthony Appiah, Ron Chernow
, Lydia Davis
, Deborah Eisenberg, Francine Prose
, and Sarah Ruhl
participated in the journal's first benefit reading.
PEN American Center
PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Contributors include Yousef Al-Mohaimeed
Yousef Al-Mohaimeed
Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, is an award-winning writer and journalist who has published several novels and short story collections in Arabic, and has been translated into English, Russian, Italian, Spanish and German...
, Paul Auster
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
, Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham is an American writer, best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999.-Early life and education:...
, Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis is a contemporary American writer noted for her short stories. Davis is also a French translator, and has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Proust's Swann’s Way and Flaubert's Madame Bovary....
, Petina Gappah
Petina Gappah
Petina Gappah, born 1971, is a Zimbabwean writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language.Gappah's first book, An Elegy for Easterly, a story collection, was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the richest prize for the short story...
, Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Her primary focus is on the individual and the power one has to make a difference in oneself and in the lives of others. Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride, respect for family, and her...
, Rawi Hage
Rawi Hage
-Early life and education:Born in Beirut, Hage grew up in Lebanon and Cyprus. He moved to New York City in 1984. In 1991, he relocated to Montreal, where he studied Photography at Dawson College and Fine Arts at Concordia University. He subsequently began exhibiting as a photographer, and has had...
, Shahriar Mandanipour, Colum McCann
Colum McCann
Colum McCann is an Irish writer of literary fiction. He is a Professor of Contemporary Literature at European Graduate School and Professor of Fiction at CUNY Hunter College's Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing with fellow novelists Peter Carey, twice winner of the Man Booker Prize,...
, Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...
, Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson
-Biography:Robinson was born and grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, and did her undergraduate work at Pembroke College, the former women's college at Brown University, receiving her B.A., magna cum laude in 1966, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her Ph.D...
, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
, John Edgar Wideman
John Edgar Wideman
John Edgar Wideman is an American writer, professor at Brown University, and sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.-Early life:...
, and many others.
PEN America was founded in 2000 by M Mark, then a member of PEN's Board of Trustees. In its first year, PEN America was named one of the "Ten Best New Magazines" by Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
. The magazine was nominated for an Utne Independent Press Award for international coverage in 2010. The essay "Ghost Writer," by Cynthia Ozick
Cynthia Ozick
Cynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. She is the niece of the Hebraist Abraham Regelson.-Background:Cynthia Shoshana Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children...
, published in PEN America 9: Checkpoints, was reprinted in The Best American Essays 2009 (part of The Best American Series). Fiction from the magazine has been selected for the Pushcart Prize
Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
in 2009 and 2010.
In February 2009, Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
, André Aciman
André Aciman
-External links:***...
, Anthony Appiah, Ron Chernow
Ron Chernow
Ronald Chernow is an American biographer. He is the author of Washington: A Life, Alexander Hamilton, The House of Morgan, and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., among other works...
, Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis is a contemporary American writer noted for her short stories. Davis is also a French translator, and has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Proust's Swann’s Way and Flaubert's Madame Bovary....
, Deborah Eisenberg, Francine Prose
Francine Prose
Francine Prose is an American writer. Since March 2007 she has been the president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991....
, and Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhl is an American playwright. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.-Biography:Ruhl was born in Wilmette, Illinois. Originally, she intended to be a poet. However, after she studied under Paula Vogel at Brown University , she was convinced to switch to playwrighting...
participated in the journal's first benefit reading.
Issues
- PEN America 1: Classics
- PEN America 2: Home & Away
- PEN America 3: Tribes
- PEN America 4: Fact/Fiction
- PEN America 5: Silences
- PEN America 6: Metamorphoses
- PEN America 7: World Voices
- PEN America 8: Making Histories
- PEN America 9: Checkpoints
- PEN America 10: Fear Itself
- PEN America 11: Make Believe
- PEN America 12: Correspondences
- PEN America 13: Lovers
External links
- PEN America website
- PEN America blog
- Video of PEN America benefit, featuring notable writers reading from past issues