PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.
- At the first session of You Are A Writer, PEN America’s workshop series for early-career writers, authors John Manuel Arias, Charmaine Craig, and Judy Batalion offered guidance on how to conduct research for narrative storytelling. Check out five of their tips, and don’t miss the next session on June 29.
- PEN America’s online book club, exclusive to professional members, kicked off with an engrossing discussion of neurologist Pria Anand’s The Mind Electric. “It’s really easy to lose sight of what is weird or special or magical about the work that I get to do,” Anand told attendees. “In writing this book, I wanted to capture that weight.” Read the full interview, and become a PEN America member to attend future book club meetings.
- After right-wing media outlets attacked Dr. Bethany Letiecq for her research on inequity in family life, she became the target of extreme online abuse and threats. PEN America spoke to Letiecq about her story and how universities must address scholar safety. Read what she said.
- The United States is following Russia down a dark path, where press freedom slowly but surely crumbles in plain sight, write Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director, and Anna Nemzer, independent journalist and co-founder of Kronika, in USA Today. “If the United States continues down this path, a free press won’t end with a bang but with a whisper — drowned out by propaganda, indifference and the silence of those who looked away,” they warn. Read more.
- For this week’s PEN Ten interview, Deb Olin Unferth tells us about the deserts and glaciers she visited for inspiration while writing Earth 7, her favorite science fiction novels, and the cliches she wants to upend about humans, robots, and love. Read the interview.
- U.S. News quoted Kasey Meehan, program director for Freedom to Read, in a story about a proposal that would make Bible stories required reading for more than 5 million public school students in Texas. Meehan said the mandated reading list would be “unique” to the state. Learn more.
- Whether novelists, commentators, poets, or even economists, those who write about war are among the first to pay the price, writes Liesl Gerntholtz, managing director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center, in Just Security. “An attack on even one writer should be read as a warning to everyone else that the right to dissent is in danger,” she explains. Read more.
- In an article about the rise in nationwide book bans and censorship efforts in higher education, Salon draws from PEN America’s reports and quotes Jon Friedman, Sy Syms managing director for U.S. Free Expression Programs. Check it out.
- To comply with a recent state budget bill, the Kansas Board of Regents approved definitions of “DEI” and “CRT” that are concerningly vague, Amy Reid, program director for Freedom to Learn, told Inside Higher Ed. “Under these definitions, it seems unclear whether a professor could even ask students to discuss arguments about whether or not racism is systemic,” she said. Read the story.
- Consultant Tasslyn Magnusson spoke to 404 Media about book relocations in public libraries and why they’re really “just a roundabout way of eliminating diverse representation from children’s literature entirely.” See the article.
