April 29 | CUNY Graduate Center | NYC

With Jose Dalisay, Hwang Sok-yong, Khet Mar, and Susan Rosenberg; moderated by Jackson Taylor

Even for those with a limited sentence, the deforming pressure of incarceration affects the mind, body, and spirit. Here, four writers each with personal experiences of the prison system—some as political detainees—will discuss the influence of that exile on their work.

Co-sponsored by the PEN Prison Writing Committee

PEN Blogs

• Robert Flynn:
I suppose every writer has pondered the consequences of writing, Publication or prison. Fortune or torture. Respected or reviled. [More]

• Deji Olukotun:
We do not like to talk about prison. We look the other way when we drive by the barbed wire, change the subject to something brighter (something more 'free'), or mutter a thanks to the system when certain kinds of criminals are incarcerated (the 'bad' kind). [More]

• Lyn Miller-Lachmann:
I arrived at the panel "Prison Deform" 15 minutes late, having scheduled too closely events that were too far from each other. [More]