PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. They champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. PEN America's mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.
PEN America is the largest of more than 100 centers of PEN International. For more than 90 years, PEN America has been working together with colleagues in the international PEN community to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to make it possible for everyone to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others. In doing so, they are building on a tradition begun in the years following World War I and carried forward by thousands of American writers.
PEN America's strength is membership—a nationwide community of novelists, journalists, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other professionals, and an even larger network of devoted readers and supporters who join with them to carry out PEN America’s mission.
