Welcome to the first issue of PEN Transmissions, our new home for writers from around the world.  Our aim is to provide a venue for conversations that can move across continents and borders, mixing new and established voices and uniting writers with their readers, wherever they might be.

Each issue will be themed. This being the Year of Publishing Women, we are dedicating our first issue to women’s writing, bringing together voices from Mexico by way of the US, Argentina, Singapore, and the UK.

We begin with an interview with Ariana Harwicz, who was longlisted for this year’s Man Booker International Prize for Die, My Love, and has much to say about writing and womanhood. We then hear from Juliet Jacques, the acclaimed writer of Trans: A Memoir, who asks us to think about who is and is not permitted to be a woman writer. Sharlene Teo, author of the debut novel Ponti, describes how her writing is shaped by language and place. And Cristina Rivera Garza, whose genderbending novel The Illiac Crest is soon to be published by And Other Stories, offers her thoughts on how publishing women authors expands our sense of what is possible.

So read on, and enjoy! And do join the conversation.

– Maureen Freely, chair of English PEN, introduces PEN Transmissions.