High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! PEN Center USA, founded in 1943, is one of two PEN centers in the United States and 145 centers in the world. It was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1981. PEN Center USA’s membership of more than 800 writers includes poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists (for the original letters in the "PEN" acronym), as well as television and screenwriters, critics, historians, editors, journalists, translators, and booksellers. Its activities include public literary events, fellowship and mentoring programs, literary awards, and international human rights campaigns on behalf of writers who are censored or imprisoned.