LITERATURE ROCKS
 
 
 

“Lyrics & Literature,” a conversation with Paul Simon, Paul Muldoon and Bill Flanagan. Watch video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annual presentation of our two prestigious literary awards, the PEN/Hemingway for best American debut fiction & the PEN New England/Winship Award for best New England writers of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction

 

 

Poet and environmentalist Wendell Berry was joined by journalist Bill McKibben in a conversation about writing and civil disobedience. PEN New England honored Wendell Berry with The Howard Zinn “People Speak” Award.  Click here to listen to the program

Monthly readings and conversations at Upstairs on the Square with Christopher Lydon and guest authors including Edith Pearlman, Nicholson Baker, Paul Harding, Andre Dubus III and more…

Presentation of the Henry David Thoreau Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing to celebrated nature writers Gretel Ehrlich and  E.O. Wilson

A literary celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the National Seashore on Cape Cod featuring Rebecca Goldstein, Alice Hoffman, Steven Pinker, and Richard Russo

 

 

 

 
An Evening with Walter Mosley
 
 
Established authors introduced promising, talented newcomers in one of two Discovery Evenings; one by the Children’s Book Committee, and the second for adult fiction, non-fiction, and poetry

Expansion of the Prison Writing workshops program, organized by the Freedom to Write Committee

Our fourth “An Evening Without…Giving Voice to the Excluded” in Norwich, VT featuring Galway Kinnell, Ron Powers, and David Macaulay

Keynote address by Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, presented by PEN New England at the Boston Book Festival

An evening with Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein, “Mind Body Problems: A Conversation about Science, Fiction, and God”

Shorts and Stories, a panel discussion featuring writers, screenwriters, and filmmakers on writing for film at the 29^th Annual Woods Hole Film Festival

THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2011

click here for more information

Roundtable discussion “The Task and Craft of Nature Writing: Nature and the Written Word” featuring Sy Montgomery, Katy Payne, and John Elder co-sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History that has led to the establishment of the “Henry David Thoreau Award” for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing

Annual presentation of the Vasyl Stus Freedom-to-Write Award to imprisoned writer Nurmuhemmet Yasin, and a panel discussion “Fairly Unbalanced: Writing Political Satire in the Twenty-First Century”

Special PEN New England Tribute to Howard Zinn champion of writers and independent publishers

“An Evening Without…Giving Voice to the Excluded” featuring James Carroll, Mary Oliver, and Howard Zinn and including a special tribute to Grace Paley by Alice Hoffman

Memorial tributes to David Foster Wallace and John Updike featuring colleagues, friends and family

Our Annual Membership Party celebrating authors whose books were published during the year