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.
- Oscar-winner Julianne Moore’s book, Freckleface Strawberry, and Vice President J. D. Vance’s book, Hilbilly Elegy, were among the books removed for review from Department of Defense Educational Activity schools. The story was covered by national and international outlets including CNN, Variety, and Rolling Stone. Read more about the targeted books here.
- PEN America criticized the education department for its letter threatening to withhold funding from educational institutions that engage in DEI activities. We were covered by The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Boston Globe. Read our statement here.
- Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) and PEN America strongly condemned the sentencing of Algerian poet Mohamed Tadjadit to five years in prison earlier this year. “Criminalizing artists never works and Algeria should immediately release Mohamed Tadjadit,” said Julie Trébault, Executive Director of ARC.
- PEN America criticized two bills currently moving through the legislature in Mississippi that would impose broad restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion in various public education spaces from schools to universities. “It’s hard to say which of these two bills is worse – it’s truly a race to the bottom,” said Amy Reid, Freedom to Learn senior manager at PEN America. Read our statement here.
- PEN America’s PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center’s managing director, Liesl Gerntholtz wrote an op-ed on President Trump’s takeover as the chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “For those of us who have studied the playbook of autocracies, Trump’s actions are not surprising. Culture, in all its forms, is always in the crosshairs of autocrats.” Read the op-ed published in US News here.
- PEN America published a letter from the authors in the Mahmoud v Taylor Supreme Court case, brought by a group of parents who sued the school district for the right to opt their children out of using books. “We created our books with love and care. Children and their parents need to see families like their own in books,” they wrote. Read the full letter.
- Jeremy Young, director of state and higher education policy, told Inside Higher Ed that for college presidents now, speaking up is fraught with risks, ranging from punitive actions by the Trump administration to pushback from trustees. Read the article on why college presidents are mostly silent on Trump.
- Timothy Richardson, program director for Journalism and Disinformation, was quoted about Trump’s “Gulf of America” feud with The Associated Press. Read Margaret Sullivan’s piece in The Guardian.
- Kristen Shahverdian, Campus Free Speech program director, called the second cancellation of a speaker at Wake Forest University arbitrary and misguided. “As we said before, we say again now: stifling speech can never be the answer to painful or contentious issues.” Read the statement.
- In this week’s Shelf Love, we talked to bestselling romance author Meg Cabot of The Princess Diaries fame. She discussed how romance has always been a part of her mind and imagination, saying, “a book without romance is like cake without frosting.” Read the full interview here.
- For our new Member Spotlight series, PEN America member Sarah Tomlinson talked to Los Angeles Events and Operations Coordinator Ayana O’Brien about her latest book, The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers. They discussed the impact of Tomlinson recently losing her home in the wildfires and what it means to be a writer in Los Angeles at this moment. Read the full interview here.
