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BLACKPINK Member Profiles

Bookmark This: PEN Center USA Member Profile, Bayne Gibby

One benefit of being a Literary Awards judge is receiving a one-year membership to PEN Center USA. As a new PEN Center USA member, what excites you most about the organization? Anywhere that the love of reading and creating stories is being ignited in others excites me!

What did you enjoy most about serving as a Literary Awards judge? I read such a huge selection of books, some that I would've never been exposed to otherwise. It gave me a sense of the enormous amount of work that exists out there to be enjoyed. I also really enjoyed discussing the books with the other judges. We had a very intimate, very interesting little book club of our own!

PEN Centers share a Freedom To Write mission, which means we believe that people should be able to read and write freely. What does Freedom To Write mean to you? Expression is empowering! The freedom to write means that all expression is encouraged and valid. Everyone's voice deserves to be heard.

You just finished reading a large number of submissions for the 2015 Literary Awards. What are you reading now? Aside from this questionnaire, I am reading picture book manuscripts of works in progress by fellow writers in my critique group. We are busy utilizing our freedom to write!