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.
- PEN America condemned Florida’s New College for discarding hundreds of books, many of which told Black, female, and LGBTQ+ stories. “News of the closure of the gender and diversity center at New College, and books being ripped from the shelves, carted off in a dumpster is more than alarming; it is frightening,” said Jeremy C. Young, Freedom to Learn program director at PEN America.
- PEN America said the cancellation of a book talk about Jewish identity by author Joshua Leifer on his book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, at powerHouse Books in Brooklyn “smacks of discrimination and exclusion, and it sends a chilling signal.”
- Craig Newmark Philanthropies (CNP) generously renewed its support for PEN America’s digital safety work. CNP’s funding will support PEN America’s efforts to provide resources and trainings to journalists and researchers, especially those of marginalized backgrounds, who are facing online abuse.
- PEN America mourned the passing of Hettie Jones, who authored 23 books, served as one of the organization’s trustees from 2001–2002, and chaired the Prison Writing Committee. Jones also taught English courses at New York University, The New School, and Parsons School of Design, and led a writing workshop at a women’s maximum-security prison.
- PEN America and Right to Be held an interactive training in which attendees learned how to intervene safely and effectively when they spot online abuse.
- The latest installments of the Facts Forward Q&A series on disinformation featured Collette Watson, founder of Black River Life, a Phoenix-based news, media, and cultural arts organization built to break down anti-Black narratives assumed as truth, and Lauren Weber, whose reporting on health policy for The Washington Post focuses on the forces promoting scientific and medical disinformation.
