“We are trying to save writers’ lives.” - Arthur Miller on PEN
The Arthur Miller PEN America Freedom to Write Lecture
P E N W O R L D V O I C E S F E S T I V A L
Named for the former PEN president and fierce defender of the freedom of expression, the annual Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture is the keynote event of the week-long PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature and features leading voices addressing critical free expression challenges.” pen.org
Watch Ta-Nehisi Coates 2023 Lecture
Past Lectures include:
2022 lecture: May 13 – Novelist and PEN Ukraine President Andrey Kurkov
Richard Flanagan’s 2021 lecture. More about Richard Flanagan
2020: Explore PEN America Digital World Voices Festival: “These Truths”
2020: Nikole Hannah-Jones & the 1619 Project. [Postponed due to Festival cancellation.]
The 1619 Project, The New York Times
“Literature Provides Shelter. That’s Why We Need it.” The Guardian (abridged lecture)
2018: Sec. Hillary Rodham Clinton & in conversation with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2015: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“The Censor in Each of Us” The New Yorker (based on lecture)
“On Censorship” The New Yorker (based on lecture)
“Writing in the Dark” The New York Times Magazine (adapted from lecture)
“The writing cure” The Guardian (edited extract from lecture)
2006: Orhan Pamuk (video unavailable)
“Freedom to Write” complete lecture text published by Prague Writers’ Festival and also in The New York Review of Book]
[author photos courtesy of pen.org]