PEN Center USA

PEN Center USA, is one of two centers in the US and third largest in the world-founded in 1943 and incorporated as a nonprofie association in 1981. PEN Center USA's membership of more than 600 writers includes poets, playwrights, essayist, and novelists (for the original letters in the acronym, "PEN"), as well as television and screenwriters, critics, historians, editors, journalists, and translators.

VISION: PEN Center USA endeavors to create a world in which freedom of expression is a guaranteed for all writers, and where friendship and intellectual cooperation thrive among writers and readers worldwide.

MISSION: PEN Center USA's mission is to stimulate and maintain interest in the written word, to foster a vital literary culture, and to defend freedom of expression domestically and internationally.

PEN Center USA defends and promotes freedom of expression throughout the world by advocating for the release of imprisoned writers, and for the protection of writers who suffer political prosecution, persecution, and censorship. Through programming and services, PEN Center USA cultivates a diverse, dynamic and engaged literary community that includes emerging and existing writers, translators, editors, agents, publishers, booksellers, teachers, librarians, and readers: everyone who loves and supports language and literature.