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Animal Farm: Banned by the Soviets, Promoted by the CIA
Though the book cannot and should not be divorced from the Russian Revolution, Orwell sees beyond the specifics of that revolution, and even beyond revolution itself, to tell what… More
Ilham Tohti Sentenced to Life in Prison
A writer, scholar, and leader in Uyghur PEN, Ilham Tohti founded Uyghur Online, a forum for dialogue between China’s Muslim Uyghur minority and majority Han populations. He was arrested… More
Send a Message of Solidarity to Ilham Tohti’s Family
Ilham Tohti, the 2014 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award Winner, is serving a sentence of life in prison in China. More
Why We Need Diverse LGBTQI Books
LGBTQI literature, while no longer taboo, still rests on uneasy ground in our school libraries. The tragedy, of course, is that young people are the ones who need these… More
PEN DIY: How To
We enter the world without an instruction manual. Parents and teachers impart what they're able; we intuit life lessons from Balki or Brenda or Kramer; we emulate boy bands;… More
Reservation Sunsets and ‘Salem’s Lot
Maybe the banning advocate truly is the 13 year old, terrified that his secret life is out, that some novelist had looked into his private world and reported from… More
On Beauty: Banning Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
The narrative that Pecola absorbs from the world around her is simple. It tells her that to be beautiful is to be white. It shapes her identity at the… More
Future Fiction of America
In the spirit of celebrating the honorees for this year’s PEN Literary Awards on September 29th, we’re holding a contest for best book title. More
Student Languishes in Detention for Facebook Post in Nigeria
PEN Nigeria responds to the detention of a Nigerian student for over 20 days for Facebook posts criticizing a state governor. More
National Coalition Against Censorship Announces Winners of Cameron Post Essay Contest
The contest, co-sponsored by PEN and other free expression groups, invited high school students in Delaware to write a 250-500 word essay saying what they felt school board members… More
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