PEN PARENTIS

Because the arts world stigmatizes creatives who have opted to start a family, Pen Parentis provides critical resources to authors who balance a creative career with parenting, inspiring them to stay on creative track. Founder M. M. De Voe serves as executive director. Our Salons Curator, Christina Chiu, won the 2015 Wai Look Award celebrating diversity. We are an all-volunteer organization. We work for our passion for literature.

Our Literary Salons feature exemplary creative work by writing parents and break stereotypes associated with parenthood. This long running program is featured in the New Yorker, New York Times and TimeOut NY, and has moved online for the duration of the pandemic. We also offer an annual $1000 Writing Fellowship for New Parents, and provide opportunity for writer-parents to build grassroots networking communities in our Cycle of Support.

We actively seek to be inclusive, and warmly welcome writing parents who are multiracial, multi-religious, parenting solo or through adoption, grandparents, teen moms, and LGBTQ. More details about us at penparentis.org