PEN American Center naming new president

NEW YORK - Francine Prose can't help it. No matter how many books she has written — more than 20 to date — she also has this "parallel self" that needs to take on political and social issues in real life, in real time.

Blame it on her age, her generation.

"I graduated from college (Radcliffe) in 1968," the 58-year-old Prose explained with a laugh during a recent telephone interview with The Associated Press. "And, while many of my contemporaries seem to have become right-wing nuts, that hasn't happened to me."

Prose's parallel self should soon receive an official role. PEN, the international organization of writers and editors, is expected to name Prose the new president of its American Center when U.S. members gather March 19 for their annual meeting. She would succeed historian Ron Chernow, who declined to seek re-election, citing personal reasons.

Prose is a longtime PEN member and advocate who is running unopposed for president, a one-year term for which she receives no salary.

The author of such novels as "Blue Angel" and "Household Saints," and a recent nonfiction best seller, "Reading Like a Writer," Prose says part of her mission will be educating the public about PEN.

"One of the exciting things to me is that I think even though many people and most writers know about PEN, I think there's only a vague idea of what PEN actually does," she said, listing many programs, including "Freedom to Write," which supports writers who face persecution or imprisonment.

"PEN saves lives. I can't think of anything more important."

PEN (which, roughly, stands for Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists) was founded in London in 1921, in the aftermath of World War I, with the "unshakable conviction that if the writers of the world could learn to stretch out their hands to each other, the nations of the world could learn in time to do the same." The American Center was started a year later.

PEN has long been visible in defending writers abroad, whether Salman Rushdie against the "fatwa" of

Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini or the charge of "insulting Turkishness" against Orhan Pamuk, last year's Nobel literature winner. Prose notes that since the Sept. 11 attacks and the passing of the Patriot Act, the organization also has been paying more attention to human rights issues in the United States.

"It's become clearer to us that there are free speech problems at home," Prose said. "We're very concerned that the Patriot Act makes it possible for the

FBI to get records for librarians and bookstores. And we're worried about the increasing incursion on journalists' ability to keep their sources secret."

Author Sidney Offit, who headed the PEN nomination committee, said Prose was an obvious choice, respected as a writer and as a colleague, dedicated to the work of PEN and willing to listen to others.

"She's wonderful," said Offit, whose books include "The Adventures of Homer Fink" and "Memoir of the Bookie's Son."

"She brings not only collegiality and familiarity, but a willingness to do it, a passion. ... Writers do not receive ego satisfaction by titles, being president of something. Most writers are almost totally focused on the distinction of their books."

Prose acknowledged feeling both honored and apprehensive when asked to run for president. She immediately accepted the nomination, but then had a "What have I done?" moment as she thought about the commitment she was taking on.

"I am a writer, and writers have to be careful about guarding their time" she said. "But it seemed so important, so valuable to help direct a human rights organization at a time in history when human rights is in so much danger."

Asked if she expects to have enough writing time, she responded, hopefully: "I'm the kind of person who just assumes that time is infinitely expandable."

And if it isn't?

"If I weren't able to write," she said, with a laugh, "I would be an extremely unhappy PEN president."

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