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 the 51-48 senate vote in favor of steep funding cuts to powerful and essential public media — NPR, PBS, and local TV and radio stations across the country. “We call on Congress to support public media during the appropriations process ahead and encourage all Americans to urge their elected leaders to stand up for press freedom,” said Tim Richardson, program manager for journalism and disinformation at PEN America. Learn more here.
- 596 books were recorded to be removed from Department of Defense schools. The full list came after judge’s orders in a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and included titles related to democracy, feminism, psychology, among other essential topics. Learn more here.
- PEN America applauded New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte for vetoing a bill that would prohibit schools from distributing materials described as “harmful to minors.” Read our statement here.
- As part of this year’s Banned Books Week, The Eleanor Roosevelt Center announced that it will honor 10 authors whose works advance human rights, co-presented with PEN America amid a surge in book bans and censorship, including Margaret Atwood, at a ceremony in Poughkeepsie, New York on Oct. 11. Read more here.
- PEN America acquired OnlineSOS, a pioneering U.S. nonprofit dedicated to supporting people harassed online. PEN America, which has highlighted and built on the work of OnlineSOS since launching its online abuse defense programming in 2018, will aim to provide more comprehensive, accessible, and user-friendly guidance to help. Read more here.
- PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center organized a gathering to mark the imprisoned poet and this year’s PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write awardee Galal El-Behairy’s 35th birthday and call for solidarity on June 27. Read more here.
- PEN America’s World Voices Festival brought together a riot of women writers who discussed subtle but extant gender discrimination in the publishing industry. Bestselling authors Jodi Picoult, Fiona Davis, and Adriana Trigiani took to the stage to shed light on stereotypes, fan mails, and historical heroines who should get their dues. Read more here.
- At another PEN World Voices panel, fascism was the word of the hour. President of PEN International and novelist Burhan Sönmez, former PEN America President and novelist Francine Prose, novelist Gary Shteyngart, and professors Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Jason Stanley joined Jonathan Friedman to discuss the current state of democracy. Read more about the panel, “On Autocracy and the Slow Death of Democracy,” here.
- Former Alaska Poet Laureate Heather Lende wrote a blog post about how in her small town, the public radio, which now stands to be defunded by the administration, is their lifeline. Read the story here.
- PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman and Laura Benitez wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post about two censorial Texas bills that “provide a blueprint for how to dismantle academic freedom and chill speech on campus state by state.” Read it here.
- PEN America’s Amy Reid was quoted in the St Louis Post-Dispatch on universities capitulating to anti-DEI executive orders commenting, “People are scared in higher education — and, sadly, they have a right to be,” Reid said.
