Below are PEN America President Jennifer Egan and PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel’s remarks from the 2019 PEN America Literary Gala.
Jennifer Egan
I’m Jennifer Egan, president of PEN America, and I want to welcome everyone here—my fellow writers, and our advocates and allies. Thank you all for joining us tonight to champion literary expression and insist upon its cultural and civic value, both around the world and here at home. Tonight, we are thrilled to welcome Richard Robinson and Scholastic, and honor their leadership in electrifying generations of new readers, including both of us.
Suzanne Nossel
And I am Suzanne Nossel, I’m the CEO of PEN America. Before we move on, I just want to take a second and ask all the writers in the room, whether you’re a literary host, or you’re a journalist, or you write in your pajamas at home. But all of you to stand up for just a minute and be recognized.
We are so grateful to all of you for joining us tonight in support of PEN America’s mission to both celebrate and defend free expression. Tonight’s honorees span generations, geographies, and cultures, but are united by their fearless fealty to truth. Whether by buckling up to document a law-defying drive across the Saudi border, publishing an exposé of the rot in the White House, or taking the witness stand against a man about to be anointed for life to the highest court in the land, their willingness to imperil their lives, risk their reputations, and sacrifice their freedoms to write and speak truth are the embodiment of what PEN America exists to safeguard. At a time when speaking out can bring more blowback than perhaps ever before, our collective job in extolling and invigorating the truthtellers is urgent.
Egan
As we gather this evening, it’s worth taking a moment to ask what it actually means to celebrate and defend free expression—and why it matters. What can our collective efforts achieve in the face of emboldened autocrats and eroding norms? What can we accomplish by working together?
Nossel
So, together we can bring the fearless, unflagging voices of Tiananmen Square into the open ahead of the 30th anniversary of that massacre. We can convince a rising generation not to turn its back on the hope for freedom in China, and the fight against repression everywhere.
Egan
Together we can demand answers in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and mobilize our allies to ensure that sham trials in Saudi Arabia aren’t rubber-stamped, and that the quest for true accountability continues.
Nossel
Together we can confer the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award on Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, jailed for the crime of exposing a massacre, and set in motion a global campaign that, just two weeks ago, led to their freedom.
Egan
We can build and fortify Myanmar PEN as a force for free expression in a country that continues to dash our hopes for a democratic breakthrough.
Nossel
Together we can insist that when Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet for a Summit in Helsinki, that the fate of 2017 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award winner Oleg Sentsov is on the agenda.
Egan
We can testify before Congress about how to ensure that a rising generation of college students doesn’t become alienated from the very concept of free speech.
Nossel
We can force the states of New York and New Jersey to lift their bans on books available in prison, vindicating the universal right to read.
Egan
We can stand up for professors who endure threats and trolling for speaking their minds, and pressure their universities to have their backs.
Nossel
And we can pay tribute to the most diverse and inclusive slate of writers ever recognized in a single literary honors program through the PEN America Literary Awards.
Egan
We can empower women, people of color, LGBT writers, and everyone targeted by the censoring forces of online trolling and push back using the PEN America Online Harassment Field Manual.
Nossel
We can mentor incarcerated individuals to express themselves in writing and tell their stories, opening our eyes to life on the inside.
Egan
We can enable young, undocumented DREAMers to be mentored by established writers, and develop their own voices through poetry, prose, and fiction.
Nossel
And with our new Los Angeles office we can mobilize Hollywood to resist censorship from foreign governments and widen the pipeline to pull in excluded voices.
Egan
We can bring over a hundred writers from all over the country and the world together to debate, deliberate, argue, and enlighten on the 15th anniversary of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature.
Nossel
And together we can transform World Press Freedom Day into a time of mobilization in Minneapolis, Austin, Berkeley, Birmingham, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, and Atlanta.
Egan
And together we can sue Donald Trump for his threats and acts of retaliation, against journalists and the media, and we can demand that a court step in to defend the First Amendment.
Nossel
So, we couldn’t do those things alone. But we can do them together.
Egan
Thanks to all of you. Have a great evening.
