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 praised Rhode Island’s Freedom to Read Act safeguarding libraries, librarians, and staff against censorship and guaranteeing readers and writers a special right to action. “Rhode Island’s Freedom to Read Act is the strongest of any freedom to read laws enacted to date,” said Laura Benitez, state policy manager at PEN America, adding, “we urge legislators nationwide to make their states safe havens for the freedom to read.” Read the full press release and coverage in Publishers Weekly.
- The Free Narges Coalition that includes PEN America said grave threats remain to Nobel Prize and PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write honoree Narges Mohammadi’s safety and life. Read the statement and coverage by The Associated Press.
- PEN America’s journalism and digital safety team’s Timothy Richardson and Leo Goldberg wrote that cuts would disproportionately harm local and rural stations, hastening their decline, and threaten support for emergency weather alerts, among other devastating effects. Read six consequences of these cuts.
- PEN America’s Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs Jonathan Friedman and consultant Tasslyn Magnusson wrote an op-ed in the School Library Journal about the cruel stereotype that underlies the Supreme Court’s recent ruling — the idea that all LGBTQIA+ stories and characters are inherently sexual in nature. Read the story here.
- PEN America’s Miami office director, William Johnson, and the Florida Freedom to Read Project’s Stephana Ferrell wrote an op-ed in the Miami New Times about our latest report, The Blueprint State, probing the frightening implications Florida’s legislature has on other conservative states. Read the op-ed here.
- In a story about the urgent fight for a free press, Editor & Publisher Magazine included PEN America’s safety helpline for journalists launched in collaboration with Aegis Safety Alliance and six other organizations during the 2024 election. Read the story here.
- Florida Public Radio featured PEN America’s Amy Reid, senior manager of the Freedom to Learn program, in their story about attacks on higher education in the state. Read more here.
- Reid was also quoted in The Indianapolis Star in an article about the termination of many degree programs in the state. Read the full story here.
- PEN America was featured in journalist Dan Margolies’ substack article on funding cuts to public schools in Missouri and the amicus brief we filed for Mahmoud v. Taylor. Read it here.
- This week, Dena Igusti is in our member spotlight. PEN America’s Aryo Wicaksono interviewed Igusti about their journey as a queer Muslim first-generation American of Indonesian descent and pivoting to the arts. Read the full interview here.
- For a PEN Ten interview, Amanda Wells spoke to award-winning reporter, Alia Dastagir, whose book, To Those Who Have Confused You To Be A Person, chronicles the experiences of 13 other women who’ve experienced online abuse, intimately exploring the impact of this violence as well as how women cope. Read the full interview here.
- In another PEN Ten, Chrisitan Omoruyi spoke to Ekow Eshun about his latest book The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them, which interrogates the centuries-long social condition of Black men as strangers in the Western imagination through illustrative portraits of five noteworthy men: Ira Aldridge, Matthew Henson, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, and Justin Fashanu. Read the full interview here.
