PEN American Center is an advocacy organization of literary professionals working to defend freedom of expression and to advance the cause of literature worldwide.

PEN welcomes to its membership all literary writers and those belonging to the larger literary community. Writers should have one book published; playwrights and screenwriters: one work produced in a professional setting; others should have achieved recognition in the literary field.

Nominations are not necessary. While admission is at the discretion of the Membership Committee, PEN aims for inclusion, recognizing that a growing and vibrant membership strengthens and informs all of its efforts on behalf of writers and their readers.

Any PEN member who has not paid annual membership dues for a period of twelve months after expiration of such membership shall be regarded as no longer a member in good standing.

Member benefits include:
• a subscription to PEN America, our award-winning journal

• access to medical insurance at group rates (not available in all states)

• use of our web site's e-bulletin boards: Member News, Events, and Publications

• discounts to our ticketed public programs, including the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature

• invitations to exclusive Member-only receptions including the PEN awards ceremony at Lincoln Center

• reciprocal privileges in PEN American Center branches and in foreign PEN Centers for those traveling abroad

• discounted access to the online database Grants and Awards Available to American Writers, the most comprehensive directory of its kind

• a subscription to the PEN annual report

When you become a Member of PEN, you join more than 3,400 of this country’s most distinguished writers, translators, editors, and others who together comprise a worldwide literary community of PEN Members in more than 100 nations. Members participate in the work of PEN by sitting on committees, conducting campaigns, and writing letters in connection with freedom-of-expression cases, participating in programs that bring literature into underserved communities, and judging PEN literary awards.

“PEN membership makes you a participant in the worldwide literary community. As a member, you enable PEN to act on behalf of all of us who care about the freedom to write and read. As a member, you provide PEN with greater credibility in its support for free expression around the world. You help PEN fight censorship. You join with PEN in encouraging readers and reading. But membership also means you become an advocate for the issues at the heart of writing: free expression and the right to read and write whatever you wish. By lending your name to PEN, you support the advocacy of writers’ rights everywhere.

The health and growth of the worldwide literary community depends upon all of us. Please become a member of PEN. We need you, and you need us.”

—PEN’s Membership Committee

Annual dues: $100

Candidates for Membership may apply by downloading and filling out the application form found on this page and submitting it to: membership@pen.org

Applications are usually reviewed every four to six weeks.

For more information about membership benefits, eligibility, or dues, please contact:

Alena Graedon, Membership Manager

>> Learn more about Associate Membership