A. L. Bardach
A. Scott Berg
Leo Braudy
William Broyles, Jr.
Sandra Cisneros
Sandra Dijkstra
Janet Fitch
Stephen Gaghan
Jonathan Kirsch
Eric Lax
Jack Miles
Michael Parks
Richard North Patterson
Kit Rachlis
Richard Reeves
Carolyn See
Mona Simpson
April Smith
Janet Sternburg
Scott Turow
Steve Wasserman

Sarah Balcomb holds a BA in Art History from Vassar College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. Her short fiction has appeared in various literary journals in print and online. At PEN USA she helps coordinate a variety of programs and edits the biweekly newsletter electricPEN. A native New Yorker, Sarah is in exile in Los Angeles and loves it.

PEN Center USA is supported in part by grants from the City of Los
 Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Dwight Stuart Youth 
Foundation, Herb Alpert Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, The 
Kayne Foundation, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the 
Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the 
Arts.


Board Chair
Marvin Putnam

Vice President
Erin Aubry Kaplan

Vice President
Jamie Wolf

Treasurer
Bob Wallace

Secretary
Nancy Hardin

Reza Aslan
Sonja Bolle
Kate Buckley
John Curl
Charles Day
Christopher Jarmick
Peter Lefcourt
Tom Lutz
Brighde Mullins
Sean Cotter
Nina Revoyr
Elias Wondimu

Coming Soon.

International PEN was founded in London in 1921 in the aftermath of World War I during a period of hatred between nations. The founder, Catharine Amy Dawson Scott, was convinced that if the writers of the world could reach out to each other, then the nations of the world could eventually learn to do the same. She was joined by eminent writers of her day, including Joseph Conrad, George Bernard Shaw and John Galsworthy, PEN’s first president. The early founders of PEN realized that for any community of letters to thrive, the freedom of the individual writer must also be protected.

PEN Center USA, one of two centers in the United States and the third largest in the world, was founded in 1943 and incorporated as a nonprofit association in 1981. PEN USA’s membership of more than 800 writers includes poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists (for the original letters in the acronym, “PEN”), as well as television and screenwriters, critics, historians, editors, journalists, and translators.