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Some of whom I met and spoke with were selling cigarettes at a streetcorner kiosk, others were welding a wrench at the public water works, others spent their days on bicycles delivering buns to bakeries, still others were washing windows or pushing brooms as a janitor's assistant at some out-of-the-way Prague museum.

As Iran heads towards elections in June, the government is once again engaging in a campaign of arrests, repression and harassment against the media. This evening explores the political, social, and personal implications of criminalizing the press, the impact of press freedom violations on upcoming elections, and what must be done to counter Iran's censorship regime.

What others owe to me is none of my business. Kierkegaard writes, "Christianly understood you have absolutely nothing to do with what others do to you." "Essentially," he continues, "you have only to do with yourself before God." Once again, the move to inwardness does not turn human beings away from the world, it is rather, "a new version of what other men call reality, this is reality."

Joshua Edwards stopped by the PEN America offices to record an excerpt, entitled "Red Storm Days," from his poem "Agonistes." Complete with hustling, bustling PEN America offices noises.

If ever there were a textbook case of outrageous government conduct, this is it. Almost any one of these things would be sufficient to warrant dismissal. Cumulatively, it is not even a close call. Mohammad Jawad has been denied justice, due process, and fair treatment for nearly six years. It’s time for that to end. Right here and right now.

Screaming mostly / I like to dance dark woods / stony hills lonely & moody / god I can scream

When my husband and I started writing young adult novels 20 years ago, I never expected our biggest obstacle to be the Nervous Parent. I think that’s because I grew up in a devout Mormon household where my parents were nervous about what I did or didn’t do, but not at all nervous about what I read. The idea that I could do anything and be anyone started with Heidi, which my mother and I read lying side by side on the floor, reading alternating chapters aloud.

In regard to the gods, / their secrets, who knew human love / wanted darkness. // Signs were many. Years facing / the gods led to scorn. Nothing is. / Of this earth, nothing is told about myths / made to breathe merely // a hundred times.

Join PEN Members Elliott Holt, Alina Simone, and Leigh Stein for a night of reading and singing during Lit Crawl Brooklyn. It's a pub crawl, with literature...

"If your love has died / Do not grieve / Laugh at love / And deceive with laughter / An unyielding sorrow." To be honest, we had to control ourselves hard from bursting out with laughter. At this age, what could she even have to do with love?!