PEN/Faulkner Presents: The 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award Judges Abby Frucht, Molly McCloskey, & Sergio Troncoso Thursday, May 12th, 2016 | 7:00 PM Free and open to the public Register Here Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE Washington, DC...
Congratulations to James Hannaham, winner of the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his novel Delicious Foods (Little, Brown), and congratulations again to our four finalists: Julie Iromuanya for Mr. and Mrs. Doctor (Coffee House Press) Viet Thanh Nguyen for The...
Judges Abby Frucht, Molly McCloskey, and Sergio Troncoso have announced their list of finalists for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on April 5th, and the 36th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner will be...
We Can Be the Change: Voices of Incarcerated Youth Free Minds Poetry Reading & Community Dialogue Wednesday, April 27th at 7 p.m. Hill Center 921 Pennsylvania Ave SE Washington, DC 20003 [Map] Reserve Your Free Tickets Here Read about Writers in Schools and Free...
Join PEN/Faulkner to welcome Mitchell Jackson and Leslie Jamison to D.C. with cocktails, conversation, and Union Kitchen catering at Compass Coffee! Doors open at 6:30 PM on Sunday, March 20th. Tickets are $75 here or at 202-898-9063. Student tickets are here....
Salman Rushdie to Give the Inaugural Eudora Welty Lecture in Washington, D.C. A new endowed lecture to be presented by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the Eudora Welty Foundation Tickets $24 The PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the Eudora Welty Foundation announce...
Louise Erdrich May 10th, 2016 | 7:30 PM In Collaboration with the Library of Congress Folger Shakespeare Library 201 East Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 (map) Tickets $15 online or at 202-544-7077 "Book by book, over the past three decades, Louise Erdrich...
Helen Oyeyemi | What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours 6:30 PM at Politics & Prose @ Busboys and Poets Takoma, in conversation with The New Yorker's Margaret Talbot The last Spring 2016 PEN/Faulkner and Politics & Prose reading will be Helen Oyeyemi, who is the...
A. Igoni Barrett | Blackass 6:30 PM at Politics & Prose @ Busboys and Poets 14th & V PEN/Faulkner and Politics & Prose present A. Igoni Barrett, author of Blackass and Love Is Power, or Something Like That. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service...
Hanya Yanagihara | A Little Life In Conversation with Mic's Madhulikka Sikka 6:30 PM at Politics & Prose @ Busboys and Poets Takoma PEN/Faulkner and Politics & Prose present Hanya Yanagihara, Man Booker- and National Book Award-shortlisted author of A Little...
Alexander Chee | The Queen of the Night In Conversation with Hache Carrillo 6:30 PM at Politics & Prose @ Busboys and Poets Brookland The Politics & Prose and PEN/Faulkner Reading Series returns with Alexander Chee, 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award Judge and author...
Edna O'Brien April 3rd, 2016 | 6:00 PM Sixth & I Historic Synagogue 600 I Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 (map) Tickets $20 online or at 877-987-6487 Edna O’Brien has been hailed as the doyenne of Irish literature. Her first novel in a decade, The Little...
Not Waving but Drowning: An Evening with Celeste Ng and John Wray Moderated by Katy Waldman Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016 | 7:30 PM Purchase a single ticket for $15 Folger Shakespeare Library – Elizabethan Theatre 201 East Capitol Street SE Washington, DC...
Hill Center & PEN/Faulkner Present: Kseniya Melnik in Conversation with Lisa Page Thursday, January 21st, 2016 at 7 p.m. Free (reserve tickets here) Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital 921 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Washington, DC 20003 The next event of the...
Hill Center & PEN/Faulkner Present: Jeff Richards in conversation with Scott Berg Tuesday, November 17th at 7 p.m. Free Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital 921 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Washington, DC 20003 Reserve Your Seat The second 2015-2016 event of the...
John Darnielle September 2nd, 2015 at 6:30 PM Politics & Prose @ Busboys and Poets Brookland In his first novel, Darnielle tells an intricate and powerful story about identity, roles, and a game that can have disastrous implications if taken too far. Now in...
Spark: The 27th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Celebration Monday, October 5th, 2015 | 6:30 PM On Monday, Oct. 5th, 2015, PEN/Faulkner will hold its 27th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Celebration at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington,...
Replacement Lives: An Evening with David Bezmozgis, Boris Fishman, and Lara Vapnyar In Partnership with the DCJCC Literary Festival Monday, October 19th, 2015 | 7:30 PM Purchase a single ticket for $15 Folger Shakespeare Library – Elizabethan Theatre 201 East...
I Feel Your Pain: An Evening with Mitchell S. Jackson and Leslie Jamison Moderated by Richard McCann Monday, March 21st, 2016 | 7:30 PM Purchase a single ticket for $15 Folger Shakespeare Library – Elizabethan Theatre 201 East Capitol Street SE Washington, DC...
The PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story: Honoring Deborah Eisenberg Friday, December 4th, 2015 | 7:30 PM Purchase a single ticket for $25 Folger Shakespeare Library - Old Reading Room 201 East Capitol Street SE Washington, DC 20003 (map) Given...
Heartlands: An Evening with Jane Smiley Moderated by Linda Holmes Friday, November 6th, 2015 | 7:30 PM Purchase a single ticket for $15 Folger Shakespeare Library 201 East Capitol Street SE Washington, DC 20003 Jane Smiley is one of America’s foremost...
A Tribute to Robert Stone Featuring Madison Smartt Bell, Stephen Goodwin, Lauren Groff, and Tim O'Brien Monday, May 2nd, 2016 | 7:30 PM Purchase a single ticket for $15 Folger Shakespeare Library – Elizabethan Theatre 201 East Capitol Street SE Washington, DC...
The PEN/Faulkner Reading Series and the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series Present Chapter and Verse: An Evening with Julianna Baggott and Laura Kasischke Monday, November 23rd, 2015 | 7:30 PM Purchase a single ticket for $15 Folger Shakespeare Library – Elizabethan...
The first 2015-2016 event of the Hill Center & PEN/Faulkner Literary Reading Series features Padgett Powell in conversation with Katherine Heiny.
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is pleased to announce that Deborah Eisenberg will receive the 2015 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story in an Award Ceremony & Reading held at the Folger Shakespeare Library in December 2015.
On June 2nd, the Scottish Rite Masons, in collaboration with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, proudly present Rachel Broudy, Richard McCann, Frazier O’Leary, George Pelecanos, and Morowa Yejidé with moderator Susan Eisenhower for an evening devoted to discussing PEN/Faulkner’s Writers in Schools Program.
Celebrating the winner as “first among equals,” the 35th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner will take place at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 2, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.
Congratulations to Atticus Lish, winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his novel Preparation for the Next Life (Tyrant Books), and congratulations again to our four finalists: Jeffery Renard Allen for Song of the Shank (Graywolf Press) Jennifer...
Summer is almost here (it's true!), and while the school year is coming to a close, our Writers in Schools programming is not! Join us for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Foundation Summer Supper & Book Club and spend your summer reading great books, eating pizza and having...
Please join us for an evening of poetry and community dialogue brought to you by Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop and PEN/Faulkner’s Writers in Schools program.
On May 2, 2015, we will honor the to-be-announced winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the four finalists for the prize. Each author will read from their work and be recognized on stage by this year's judges, Alexander Chee, Marc Fitten, and...
Judges Alexander Chee, Marc Fitten, and Deirdre McNamer have announced their list of finalists for the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on April 7th, and the 35th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner will be held...
The next installment of the Hill Center & PEN/Faulkner Literary Reading Series features Brando Skyhorse, author of The Madonnas of Echo Park and Take This Man, in conversation with Lisa Page, Acting Director of Creative Writing, The George Washington University.
The next installment of the Hill Center & PEN/Faulkner Literary Reading Series features Erika DeSimone and Fidel Louis, editors of Voices Beyond Bondage: An Anthology of Verse by African Americans of the 19th Century, in conversation with Lisa Page, Acting Director of Creative Writing, The George Washington University.
Hill Center & PEN/Faulkner Present: Maureen Corrigan in conversation with Jackson Bryer Tuesday, Nov. 11th at 7 p.m. Free (Please register for your free tickets here) The next installment of the Hill Center & PEN/Faulkner Literary Reading Series...
On Monday, Oct. 6th 2014, PEN/Faulkner will hold its 26th Annual Gala fundraiser at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. This annual event supports the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and our Writers in Schools programming and features some of...
The PEN/Faulkner & Hill Center Literary Reading Series returns with an event featuring authors Timothy Denevi & Judith Warner, who will read from their work and discuss ongoing research, trends, and attitudes related to the diagnosis and treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
35th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Reading
Where We Are From: Place and Personhood in Fiction
All Things Animate, Beating in Unison: An Evening with T.C. Boyle
The Imaginary Real: Weaving Fact into Fiction – A reading and conversation with Ruth Ozeki & Claire Vaye Watkins
In the Beginning Was the Word: An Evening with James Carroll & Marilynne Robinson
2014 PEN/Malamud: The Legacy of Bernard Malamud: Celebrating Excellence in the Short Story
In This Way Comes Morning: New Writing of the West African Diaspora November 24, 2014 at 7:30 PM | $15 (buy) Folger Shakespeare Library - Elizabethan Theatre 201 East Capitol Street SE Washington, DC 20003 (map) The past few years have been a particularly...
A Storied Future: Ann Beattie in conversation with emerging writers from the Virginia Quarterly Review, Tope Folarin, Onyinhe Ihezukwu, Greg Jackson, and Brendan McKennedy
When D.C. Conspiracy founding member Matt Dembicki walked into the last session of this year’s PEN/Faulkner’s Summer Supper and Book Club, he was carrying a massive portfolio of current projects—including sheets detailing his creative process, a stack of Magic Bullet...
Derrick Weston Brown writes the kind of poetry that generates conversations that are at once discomfiting, engaging, and necessary. So when PEN/Faulkner’s Summer Supper and Book club gathered on an unusually mild Tuesday evening to discuss Wisdom Teeth, the poet’s...
You are the experts. You know more about these stories than I do. David Harris Ebenbach, poet, playwright, academic, and author of the 2005 Drue Heinz Literature Prize winning short story collection Between Camelots, said this to the PEN/Faulkner Summer Supper &...
On July 15th, the PEN/Faulkner Summer Supper and Book club played host to Danielle Evans, author of the critically acclaimed 2010 debut, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, a collection of eight stories. Evans, whose writing has been described by The New York...
On May 10, 2014 we honored the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Karen Joy Fowler, and the four finalists for the prize, Daniel Alarcón, Percival Everett, Joan Silber, and Valerie Trueblood. Each author read from their work and was recognized on stage by...
Minutes before the thunderstorms that lent the Capitol a brilliant rainbow two Tuesdays ago, author Elliott Holt walked into the PEN/Faulkner Summer Supper & Book to discuss her 2013 novel YouAre One of Them. Upon its release, the Washington Post declared that,...
This first dispatch from our Summer Supper & Book Club comes from Kangsen Feka Wakai, who is focusing on Writers in Schools-related projects during his summer internship with us. Stay tuned for more updates from the Book Club right here at the Writers in Schools...
On Monday, March 31st at 7 p.m., Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, in collaboration with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, will host its second annual community poetry reading and dialogue at Hill Center.
So far, 2014 may be best known as the year of the polar vortex so far, but we're not letting the cold (or the school delays and closures) get us down. Already we have plans for Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of the acclaimed novel Wench all set to discuss Solomon...
On Wednesday, Jan. 29th, at 7 p.m., Hill Center and PEN/Faulkner will present author Molly McCloskey in conversation with writer Lisa Page. This reading and conversation is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.
When an author comes to DC to read for PEN/Faulkner, we ask if he or she would be willing to participate in Writers in Schools. We lay out the basics of the program—that we aim to serve students in public and public charter high schools by donating books, providing...
Whose Life Is it, Anyway: The Literary Biographer’s Craft. On Tuesday, Feb. 4th, Blake Bailey, Ruth Franklin, and D.T. Max will take to the Folger stage to engage in a reading and conversation with author and New Yorker staff writer Margaret Talbot.
Survival Instincts: First-time Novelists on the Ties That Bind. On Monday, Feb. 24th novelists Ayana Mathis and Justin Torres will read at the Folger Shakespeare Library and engage in conversation moderated by novelist Elliott Holt.
On Mar. 14, at 7 p.m., Hill Center and PEN/Faulkner will present Phil Klay, who will read from and discuss his acclaimed debut story collection, Redeployment. This event will be held at Hill Center, and is free and open to the public.
The Heart of Things Human: An evening with Richard Ford, in conversation with Ron Charles. On Thursday, April 10, acclaimed author Richard Ford will read and engage in conversation with the Washington Post‘s Ron Charles.
PLEASE NOTE: Our reading series event Two Lives in Language: Amy Tan & Deborah Tannen in Conversation has been rescheduled for Wed., April 16th at 7:30 p.m. at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation.
On April 25, at 7 p.m., Hill Center and PEN/Faulkner will present author Rebecca Mead in conversation with journalist and author Hanna Rosin. Mead will read from her acclaimed work of narrative nonfiction My Life in Middlemarch.
One month ago, on Monday, October 7th, esteemed writers from all over the country came to D.C. to read at the PEN/Faulkner 25th Annual Gala—as well as to visit local schools to discuss their books. Among the writers was Roy Scranton, who visited McKinley Tech to talk...
The WinS Triathlon with Alison Stewart If you’ve been following the WinS Blog for a while now, you’ve certainly read about the time-honored tradition of the “WinS Marathon.” It’s when a writer visits three or more class sections in a single day, which, given block...
WinS Author Questionnaire with Melanie S. Hatter The WinS Questionnaire is back, and we’re featuring writer Melanie S. Hatter in this first installment of the school year! When Hatter set out to write the novel that would eventually become The Color of My Soul, she...
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s 25th Anniversary Gala: “Renewal,” featuring new work composed for the evening by authors Christopher Castellani, Matt Gallagher & Roy Scranton, Yiyun Li, Anthony Marra, George Pelecanos, Mona Simpson, Christopher Tilghman, Meg Wolitzer, Tiphanie Yanique, and May Kay Zuravleff and featuring Master of Ceremonies Calvin Trillin.
The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival presents E.L. Doctorow Sunday, Oct. 6, 20137:00 - 8:30 PMMontgomery College Cultural Arts Center7995 Georgia AvenueSilver Spring, MD 20910 [Map] E.L. Doctorow Andrew's Brain: A Novel | Opening...
The next installment of the Hill Center/ PEN/Faulkner Literary Reading Series features award-winning writer, filmmaker, and hip-hop artist MK Asante who will read from and discuss his new book, BUCK: A Memoir. Asante will be joined in conversation by writer Lisa Page,...
Last night, the Summer Supper and Book Club talked about A Tribe Called Quest and bar brawls in Adams Morgan—all for the sake of poetry week and our discussion of Derrick Weston Brown’s Wisdom Teeth, of course. We started by talking about the music and musicians who...
Last night, we kicked off our session with a warm-up exercise in which Summer Supper & Book Club participants were asked to imagine that they were in a band and that they had to pick their favorite characters from literature and film as their bandmates. Book Club...
About the Winner BENJAMIN ALIRE SÁENZ Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club (Cinco Puntos Press) Benjamin Alire Sáenz's Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club presents seven stories set on the south Texas border of El Paso and Juárez, examining...
Last night, PEN/Faulkner’s Summer Supper and Book Club looked at the happier side of the Depression as the group discussed Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America by David A. Taylor. Sharing their own associations of the Depression,...
No, it’s not a strange version of literary “six degrees of separation”, but it is among the many questions David Taylor, sets out to answer in Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America. The answer, then, to the riddle is that all three...
Last Tuesday over pizza and safe from the heavy humidity, we had a chance to meet Danielle Evans, author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. We discussed “King of a Vast Empire,” a story, which revolves around...
Last night, the Summer Supper and Book Club welcomed four new members from Banneker, Richard Wright, and even Mississippi. We did a speed-read of the first chapter of Plum and Jaggers to catch up, stopping to discuss Susan Richard Shreve’s nonlinear narrative and the...
Today marks the end of the 2013-2013 school year in Washington, DC. You could sum up the past 40 weeks worth of Writers in Schools activities with a few numbers: 140 visits, 26 public and public charter schools, 42 instructors, 2,100 participating students, 3,300...
Dedicated PEN/Faulkner board member. Engaged Writers in Schools author. Fantastic lunch partner. These are only a couple of the qualities of author and former PEN/Faulkner board member Yolanda Young. She visited every single section of ninth grade English at Ballou...
Last week, author and communications entrepreneur Felicia Pride visited five different sections of instructor Samantha Vacknin's class at Northwestern High School in Baltimore. Pride, who grew up in Baltimore after spending her early years in New Jersey, knows a thing...
On June 7th at 7 p.m. at Hill Center, join New Yorker staff writer Margaret Talbot and movie critic Nell Minow for a screening of Three on a Match (1932), a quintessentially racy, hard-boiled movie from pre-Code Hollywood, the era when movie censorship was not yet...
She Left Me the Gun: My Mother's Life Before MeAuthor Conversation and Book Signing with Emma Brockes & Michel Martin On Thursday, May 23rd, at 7 p.m., join Hill Center for a conversation with The Guardian writer Emma Brockes about her new book She Left...
On Friday, May 17th at 6 p.m., join our friends at the Folger Shakespeare Library for a free reading featuring Adam Mansbach and poets Joseph Ross and Clint Smith. This event brings together prose and poetry that explores themes of graffiti—including poems on...
Way back in August we released the list of writers who would participate in the 2012-2013 Reading Series and, while in Washington, would go on a Writers in Schools visit. As librarian Sarah Elwell looked over the list, she remarked, almost in passing, “Terry...
Join Us in CelebratingThe 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Honorees At the 33rd Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner 33rd PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & DinnerHonoring Authors:Amelia Gray | Laird Hunt | T. Geronimo Johnson...
This month, PEN/Faulkner brings the bestselling author of Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, The Interruption of Everything, and Getting to Happy to Washington, DC for a cocktail reception on April 19th and a special reading at Sixth & I Historic...
Last week's visit to Anacostia High School with author Dolen Perkins-Valdez provided students the opportunity to engage the author on a number of issues—including class, race, love, and history—that are central to Perkins-Valdez's novel Wench. It also provided the...
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is pleased to announce that author Benjamin Alire Sáenz has been selected as the winner of the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his collection of short fiction Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, which was published...
ON THE SAME PAGE: Voices of Incarcerated Youth Tuesday, April 2, 2013 7—9 p.m.FREE Hill Center 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE Washington, DC 20003 {Map} Join PEN/Faulkner and Hill Center for an evening of poetry and community dialogue brought to you by Free Minds Book...
WinS is having a banner week here in DC as local authors are lined up for 17 individual school visits throughout the District. While you may have noticed a bit of silence here on the WinS blog as a result, something occurred to me this week on a visit to Howard...
James Grady is the author of over a dozen novels, including Six Days of the Condor, later adapted for a film starring Robert Redford. But his high profile novels weren’t up for discussion last week as he gathered with a group of students at Trinity College in...
2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Judges Walter Kirn, Nelly Rosario, and A.J. Verdelle have announced their list of five finalists for the this year's PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on March 19th, and the 33rd Annual PEN/Faulkner Award...
On Thursday, March 28th at 7:30 p.m., join us as Geraldine Brooks, Julie Otsuka, and Dolen Perkins-Valdez take the stage at the Folger Shakespeare Library in a reading we're calling Living History: Reclaiming female voices from the threat of historical...
E. Ethelbert Miller is the kind of person who knows something about everything. On our ride over to Thurgood Marshall Academy in Anacostia, we discussed, in no particular order, Valentine’s Day, the prison-industrial complex, college basketball, and Frederick...
It's all too easy to employ sports metaphors when speaking or writing about Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding. These things necessarily spring to mind after you've read a 500+ page campus novel that is, at heart, very much about the game of baseball. One could, for...
Hill Center / PEN/Faulkner Literary Reading Series:Susan Richards Shreve & Nicole Idar Sunday, March 3, 20134 p.m. — 6 p.m.Hill Center About the Series: For years, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation has hosted an acclaimed reading series featuring nationally known...
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Wench, visited my tenth grade classes as part of our third unit of the school year. The unit theme was love, and the essential question was: Does love free us or cage us? Throughout the unit, students discussed and wrote about this...
Back in December I was lucky enough to go along while Dolen Perkins-Valdez visited an extraordinary group of 10th graders at the SEED School of D.C. It was a two-part visit, with students discussing two of Dolen’s short stories early in the week, and the...
Novelist Marita Golden visited National Collegiate Preparatory Public Charter School in southeast D.C. last week to discuss her novel, After, as well as her other work and her writing career. After follows Carson Blake, a veteran police officer from a troubled...
This installment of the Writers in Schools author questionnaire features fiction writer Maud Casey. A DC resident, Casey teaches creative writing at the University of Maryland and is the author of the novels Genealogy and The Shape of Things to Come as well as the...
Together, under the moniker Ella Monroe, Amy Reingold and Maz Rauber wrote the highly anticipated Capital Girls trilogy. The first installment was released in August and immediately began generating comparisons to hit series like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little...
A little over a month after DCPS released its data on graduation rates, I found myself faced with another sobering statistic. Nationwide only 40% of teen mothers graduate from high school, and less than two percent go on to earn a college degree by the time they’re...
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