Blog
Filter By:
Advocacy • Analysis • Blog • Commentary • Drama • Essay • Event • Feature • Fiction • Graphic Narrative • Interview • Memoir • News • Obituary • Open Letter • Poetry • Press Release • Profile
Browse By Series:
PEN Poetry Series • Prison Writing • The PEN Ten Interviews • Illustrated PEN • Pen Pals • The PEN World
Browse By Email Subscription:
PEN America News • Educational Censorship News • Works of Justice
PEN America Demands Iran Release Writer and Human Rights Defender Narges Mohammadi
“Narges Mohammadi has been a stalwart defender of free expression in Iran for more than a decade. This latest arrest and immediate detention in solitary confinement is a gross… More
The PEN Pod: The Journey to Cloud Cuckoo Land with Anthony Doerr
“Books allow us to slip out of the walls—the proverbial walls or the metaphorical walls—of our own lives. And thank goodness they do.” More
PEN America Celebrates Release of U.S. Journalist Danny Fenster
The release of journalist Danny Fenster, a U.S. citizen and managing editor of the independent Frontier Myanmar news outlet, is a rare victory for freedom of expression in Myanmar. More
Cuban Authorities Lock Down Would-Be Protesters
State security forces in Cuba today prevented demonstrators from taking part in a planned rally to protest ongoing repression and persecution on the island, barricading artists, journalists, and activists… More
Advancement of Ohio Bill Ominous Sign for Protest Rights
(New York, NY) — A proposed state law in Ohio threatens to unduly restrict protest rights and undermine First Amendment freedoms, PEN America warned today. The legislation—HB 109—was voted… More
Facing the Page: PEN America’s Prison Writing Program Takes on NaNoWriMo 2021
In our third year of collaboration with NaNoWriMo, we are supporting 15 incarcerated writers taking on the daunting challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in just 30… More
Closure of Kyiv Post Raises Warning Signal About Independent Journalism in Ukraine
PEN America today expressed deep concern regarding the closure of the Kyiv Post. More
PEN America Decries Move to Liquidate Russian Human Rights Group
PEN America today decried the move by the Russian prosecutors to liquidate Memorial, the country’s oldest human rights group. More
The PEN Pod: On Educational Gag Orders and the January 6 Insurrection Subpoena
“We should be encouraging young people to look at our history through a variety of lenses—through the lens of race, through the lens of socioeconomics, gender.” More
Texas Governor Invokes ‘Pornography’ to Ban Books, Threaten Criminal Action Against Librarians and Teachers
PEN America condemns the governor’s actions as a politically-motivated exercise in censorship and intimidation that threatens to ban books and criminalize teachers and librarians doing their job. More