The PEN Pod

In this episode, we speak to PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel about Trump, social media, and news deserts for our weekly TOUGH QUESTIONS segment. Then, Gina Chung talks to award-winning YA author Francisco X. Stork, whose new book ILLEGAL published earlier this week. They discuss how the book was informed by his own experiences as both a lawyer and an immigrant and the importance of highlighting social issues in literature for young people.

On this 100th episode of The PEN Pod, we talk to poet Nikky Finney, an award-winning writer and teacher. She reflects on how literary celebrations have been redefined amid the pandemic, how she's woven together the personal and the political, and how she approaches mentorship.

On this edition of The PEN Pod, we discuss how Chinese government censorship has reached into Hollywood and the U.S. filmmaking industry. PEN America is out with a new report today looking at that issue, and we talk to the lead author James Tager.

On this edition of The PEN Pod, we talk to playwright David Adjmi whose first foray into nonfiction is out now, a memoir called LOT SIX. The book contends with his evolution as a writer, his vulnerabilities, and growing up in a Syrian Jewish community in New York. He talks of moving from playwriting to nonfiction and how theater is evolving amid the pandemic.

Two poets and writers discuss the power of literature at a moment like ours; how writing about diaspora and dislocation are powerful tools in the literary arsenal; and what they're telling their students about writing amid a pandemic. Sholeh Wolpe and Nathalie Handal join us for an extended conversation in this edition of The PEN Pod.

This week, PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel is out with her new book Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. Even so, she makes time to parse through some of the biggest free speech questions of the week in our TOUGH QUESTIONS segment. We talk about the big tech companies and how breaking them up might actually benefit free speech; the drawdown of federal law enforcement in Portland; plus, disinformation on the horizon.

On this extended edition of The PEN Pod, we talk to Pulitzer winner and two-time U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey about her new memoir MEMORIAL DRIVE, a story that honors the life of her mother and how her mother's life shaped her own. Plus, she discusses the changes underway in the American south around historical memory and race.

PEN America is launching a series of webinars teaching you how to support friends or colleagues who are enduring online harassment. PEN America is teaming up with Hollaback, the anti-harassment organization, to lead that series, and in this episode, we talk to Hollaback's co-founder Emily May, as well as PEN America's Viktorya Vilk.

Today is publication day for PEN America's Suzanne Nossel. Her new book DARE TO SPEAK: DEFENDING FREE SPEECH FOR ALL goes on sale today, and her national book tour starts tonight. In this conversation, she discusses why she wrote this book now, and how she hopes it might help us all navigate the tricky terrain of free speech, cancel culture, and free expression.

Today we continue our series of conversations between PEN America Emerging Voices Fellows and their mentors. We speak with Shannon Gatewood and her mentor, novelist Rachel M. Harper, about the experience of virtual mentorship and writing about identity.