Logo for PEN International World Association of Writers The PEN American Center turned all of 90 years old in 2012 and recently decided to give itself a very useful digital facelift. With such cases like that of the Qatari poet Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami , Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, and Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega still rocking international headlines, the PEN American Center’s mission in conjunction with PEN international ––to defend the right to freedom of expression and promote the values of literature and literacy––has never been more valuable than right now. As much as I’m enjoying its swagging new style , the upgrade came with a price to which I, and other authors who maintained blogs on the site, now have to adapt. My primary reason for joining PEN American Center last year was to participate in and contribute to the legacy of literary camaraderie first established by C A. Dawson Scott and John Galsworthy––and then later sustained by such lumino...

                    Journalist, publisher, and blogger Eskinder Nega. (World News photo) “ I am Eskinder Nega. Like my hero Nelson Mandela, my soul is unconquered, my spirit unbroken, my head unbowed, and my heart unafraid.”—Eskinder Nega from I Am Eskinder Nega Change is one of the scariest things in the world and yet it is also one of those variables of human existence that no one can avoid. One may literally find the lessons of that simple observation all over the map at this halfway point in the year 2012–– and only a few months before Americans take their collective political fate into their own hands during one of the most intense presidential elections on historical record.  From such a perspective, it matters less whether you look at the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions to skillfully dissect Arizona’s (and by extension similar states’) Illegal Immigration Law, and then largely uphold President Barack Ob...

Award-winning journalist Serkalem Fasil accepts the 2012 PEN Freedom to Write Award for husband Eskinder Nega . (photo by Beowulf Sheehan, PEN American Center/Associated Press) Political relations between China and the United States may have been visibly strained due to Chinese activist and lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s unexpected bid for asylum last week but diplomacy and fellowship between authors from across the globe proved the exact opposite throughout PEN American Center’s World Voices Festival from April 30 to May 6. Currently celebrating the 90th anniversary of PEN American Center, headquartered in New York City, members of the organization hosted some 100 writers from more than two dozen countries during the festival. The event concluded Sunday with former PEN president Salman Rushdie’s presentation of the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture . Several locations in the city served as festival venues, including the The Standard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, th...