Steve Luxenberg is as familiar with Baltimore and Washington, DC as just about anyone. In 1985, after an eleven year tenure with The Baltimore Sun, Luxenberg joined The Washington Post as deputy editor of the investigative/special projects staff. In 1991, he...
Last week was a doozy around the PEN/Faulkner offices. On Sunday, Dec. 2nd, we launched the Hill Center Reading Series and on Friday, Dec. 7th, we honored 2012 PEN/Malamud Award recipient James Salter. On the 6th, D.C.-based author Maud Casey visited two classes at...
Last Thursday one teacher, one writer, and 70 Coolidge High School sophomores made Writers in Schools history. They had three WinS visits in a single day. It's not uncommon for three (or more) visits to occur in one day, but normally they are spread out over...
PEN/Faulkner Presents @ Hill Center Alan Cheuse & Alyson Foster Dec. 2, 2012, 7:00 p.m. The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is proud to announce a new venture that will present established local authors alongside emerging voices. The Hill Center Reading Series is...
Argentinian author Federico Falco discusses the differences between writing novels and short fiction, a topic among many discussed during last week's visit to Bell Multicultural High School. As you could probably tell from our previous posts, we were pretty...
Zimbabwean author and recent resident of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Christopher Mlalazi, recently visited Coolidge High School to talk about his new memoir, Running With Mother. Last week we were lucky enough to host...
During a recent visit with author Danielle Evans to two writing classes at Trinity College, Evans was quick to point out that while for many authors (herself included) personal experience may inform her fiction, the stories found in her collection Before You...
We'll not mince words here: George Pelecanos is incredible. The prolific author, script writer, and television producer (and let's not forget PEN/Faulkner Board Member) is beloved by students and Writers in Schools instructors for a reason: because the man cares about...
On Thursday, October 11th Lulu Delacre visited the Cardozo Senior High School teen parent book club to discuss Jay and Ben, as well as her bilingual book Arrorró, Mi Niño, a book of Latino lullabies and gentle games. She discussed her inspiration for writing Arrorró,...
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s 24th annual Gala took place on the evening of Monday, Sept. 10th at the Folger Shakespeare Library and featured hilarious and heartbreaking readings exploring the theme of “Resilience” by Carol Anshaw, Louis Bayard, Chris Bohjalian, Ben Fountain, Major Jackson, Vaddey Ratner, Elissa Schappell, Susan Richards Shreve, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Hilma Wolitzer.
Summer Program Update With Gretchen Barkhuff Goodbyes have never been my strong suit. In some ways, they are a bit like writing conclusions for a paper: you look back, wrapping up what you did and tying up loose ends, but you also need to look forward and...
Summer Program Update by Gretchen Barkhuff Maud Casey, author of The Shape of Things to Come, joined us on August 7th for the last day of our summer 2012 writing workshop. The workshop topic for our final week was revision, and Casey came with many clever tips...
Summer Program Update by Gretchen Barkhuff Last Tuesday, July 31st, poet Derrick Weston Brown led the summer program students in a fun and lively discussion based off of his poetry collection entitled Wisdom Teeth. One of the students asked Weston Brown why he chose...
Do you remember the childhood game "Telephone" (or "Whisper Down the Lane"), where the first person in a line would whisper a phrase to the person behind them? This process is continued down the line—the phrase being repeated and often reinterpreted—until the last...
Summer Program Update by Gretchen Barkhuff Author Dolen Perkins-Valdez stopped by the workshop this past Tuesday, July 24th, to discuss her short story, “The Clipping.” “The Clipping” explores the weight of memory as a haunting family past of a lynched ancestor bleeds...
Summer Program Update by Gretchen Barkhuff “If someone gives you an opportunity, hijack it and make it the best possible thing it can be,” author James Grady advised the summer workshop students. Grady—a thriller and noir writer— was excited to work with our young...
Summer Program Update by Gretchen Barkhuff Novelist Susan Richards Shreve led a fun and thought-provoking conversation on writing and characters this past Tuesday, July 10th, at the summer program. The students read her novel Plum & Jaggers which is a truly...
W. Ralph Eubanks visits the summer program.
Summer Program Update by Gretchen Barkhuff The summer program is off to an amazing start. We have a wonderful group of high school students that were ready to jump right in on the first day. As a warm up activity we did a writing relay race outside. Two teams...
Summer Program Update by Gretchen Barkhuff It has been quite a busy week here at the PEN/Faulkner office! The summer program starts today and, as the Education and Development intern, I’ve been brainstorming writing activities, finalizing lesson plans, and compiling...
Hi! My name is Gretchen Barkhuff and I am excited to be the new Education and Development intern here at PEN/ Faulkner. This summer I will be helping to organize and lead the Summer Writing Workshops for high school students as part PEN/ Faulkner’s Writers in Schools...
A Reflection by 2011 Gala Essay Contest Winner Laneisha McCauley In September Laneisha McCauley was selected as one of the winners of our Gala Essay Contest and was asked to read her essay at the Folger Shakespeare Library alongside writers including Al Young, Natasha...
James Salter has been selected to receive the 25th annual PEN/Malamud Award. Given annually since 1988 in honor of the late Bernard Malamud, this award recognizes a body of work that demonstrates excellence in the art of short fiction. Salter is regarded as one of the...
May 18, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at Washington National Cathedral Join Ann Patchett, recently named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME magazine, as she reads from her most recent novel State of Wonder. Patchett is the author of six novels, including...
Filipa Calado accompanied local writer Leslie Pietrzyk to School Without Walls where Mr. Ismail's AP class had discussed the novel Pears on a Willow Tree. Filipa's account of the visit follows. In early March, Leslie Pietrzyk stopped by the School Without Walls to...
Teen Parent Book Club Update On Monday, Yasmin Shiraz visited the Teen Parent Book Club at the Anacostia New Heights Center. After a few weeks of reading her novel Retaliation, students were ready and excited to ask questions about Ms. Shiraz’s story of violence in a...
We are pleased to announce that The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka has been selected as the winner of the 2012 PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction. It is a precise, poetic novel that tells the story of Japanese picture...
About the Winner JULIE OTSUKAThe Buddha in the Attic(Knopf) Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic is a precise, poetic novel that tells the story of Japanese picture brides brought to California from Japan in the early twentieth century. In a series of eight slim,...
Last week a group of five female Iraqi Playwrights visited Bell Multicultural High School for a conversation about writing, tolerance, and living in a discriminatory society. Alaa Najem Abdullah, Azhar Ali Hussein, Hawar Sharif, Hayat Haidar Mohammed Ali, and Kholod...
We’re proud to announce the five finalists for the 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America’s largest peer-juried prize for fiction.
This past week the Teen Parent Book Club at Cardozo High School hosted its first author visit of the semester. Lezlie Evans, author of nine children’s books, including the recent and critically acclaimed Who Loves the Little Lamb, stopped by for a conversation about...
For Chris Adrian, On His Birthday On November 7th we took Reading Series author (and New Yorker “20 Under 40” notable) Chris Adrian into Bell Multicultural High School librarian Sarah Elwell’s book club to talk about his story collection, A Better Angel. What we...
My Name Sounds Like Poetry It’s Ariel, fresh off of my first ever author visit with a Teen Parent Book Club! On Monday the Teen Parent Book Club at the New Heights Center in Anacostia High School hosted poet Kenneth Carroll for a discussion on writing, poetry, and the...
To kick off a running series about "How to Prepare for a WinS Visit," we've asked PEN/Faulkner board member, author, and longtime WinS collaborator Yolanda Young (On Our Way to Beautiful) to guest-blog about how she gets ready to visit DC high schools to...
It was homecoming at Calvin Coolidge high school. The students in Ms. Berke's fourth period class were loose and excited, draped in school colors, and Reginald Dwayne Betts wanted to talk about hospital rooms. "My wife just had a baby so I've been in the hospital for...
It’s Ariel, back with another update from the Teen Parent Book Club! Last Thursday PEN/Faulkner Deputy Director Emma Snyder and I went to Cardozo Senior High School for a book club meeting. I could tell right away that students were a little anxious about the...
This is Ariel, Educational Associate and the PEN/ Faulkner team’s newest member! On Monday I traveled across the river to Anacostia High School for a meeting with the teen parents book club. We gathered in the school’s New Heights Teen Parents Center over lunch and...
Greetings all. I'm Max, and I'm an intern for PEN/Faulkner, helping out behind the curtain. This week, a number of authors appeared at our annual Gala, held to benefit both our Writers in Schools program and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The event featured...
2018 Joan Silber, Improvement FINALISTS: Hernán Diaz, In The Distance Samantha Hunt, The Dark Dark Achy Obejas, The Tower of the Antilles Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing 2017 Imbolo Mbue, Behold the Dreamers FINALISTS: Viet Dinh, After Disasters Louise Erdrich,...
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