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
Kit Rachlis
Carolyn See
Mona Simpson
April Smith
Janet Sternburg
Scott Turow
Steve Wasserman

PEN Center USA is generously supported by the Herb Alpert Foundation, California Community Foundation, City of Los Angeles – Department of Cultural Affairs, The James Irvine Foundation, Kayne Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Rosenthal Family Foundation, Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and Jamie Rosenthal Wolf & David Wolf.

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 Center USA’s membership of more than 600 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.

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 Center 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.