Kasey Meehan is the Director for Freedom to Read at PEN America. In her role she leads PEN America’s efforts in defending the rights of students, individuals, and communities to freely access literature in schools and public libraries. Kasey leads the organization’s research, advocacy and mobilization, and author engagement related to book bans and the freedom to read.
Meehan has authored numerous reports for PEN America, including our seminal Banned in the USA report series, documenting an ongoing rise in book bans across public schools in the United States. She has written opinion pieces on trends in the book banning movement and regularly provides commentary to news media pertaining to book censorship, free expression, and democracy appearing in The New York Times, NPR, TIME, and NBC. She has facilitated and participated in workshops and public events about free expression issues in education and libraries, contributing to the documentary film The Librarians, Philadelphia’s National Liberty Museum’s The Year of Free Speech Exhibit, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Center Annual Banned Book Awards. Meehan has also advised on several pieces of state legislation, including Freedom to Read Acts signed in Maryland and Delaware, and participated in roundtables with congressmembers on the topic of book bans.
Meehan joined PEN America in 2022. Previously, Kasey served as the Associate Director of Postsecondary Policy at a mission-driven education research organization in Philadelphia, Research for Action. Meehan holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a MPA from the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.
Publications
Burn This Book: A Banned Books Book Club
January 2025
“Book Banning”
A Fresh Face in Hell with Jonathan Evison, November 2024
Book bans have tripled in the last year
Bookaholic, October 2024
Utah lawmakers ban 13 books statewide. Could more states do the same?
NPR, September 2024
Don’t Say Rape: How the Book Banning Movement Is Censoring Sexual Violence
Ms. Magazine, March 2024
A secret shelf of banned books thrives in a Texas school, under the nose of censors
NPR, February 2024
