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UN Ruling Demands Iran Release Persecuted Writers
“As the anniversary of Baktash Abtin’s death approaches, we are encouraged and heartened by this robust ruling,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN America’s director of Free Expression at Risk… More
Arrest of Actress, Activist, Translator Taraneh Alidoosti is Another Blatant Effort to Suppress Human Rights in Iran
Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center, said: "Taraneh Alidoosti is a highly talented actress who has long used her celebrity status to advocate for women's equality in… More
PEN America Raises Concern Over “a Cloak of Inscrutability” for Judges in Judicial Security and Privacy Provision of Defense Bill
“The Judicial Security and Privacy Act will enshroud the federal judiciary with a cloak of inscrutability, curtailing the ability of journalists and civil society to fairly investigate and uncover… More
PEN America Calls on Elon Musk to Reverse Twitter Suspensions of Journalists
”It’s alarming but unfortunately not so surprising to see Musk silencing journalists or creating new content regulation rules on a whim, based purely on what he finds inconvenient for… More
Break Out: PEN America Celebrates Prison Writing Awards and New Anthology
PEN America celebrated the winners of its 2022 Prison Writing Awards as it launched the new anthology, Variations on an Undisclosed Location, with an event at the Brooklyn Public… More
New Report: Troubling Rise in Restrictions on Artistic Freedom and Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean
“In the last few years, political and social tensions have risen dramatically in Latin America and the Caribbean amid the confluence of grave crises and dramatic changes. Authoritarian governments… More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Rešoketšwe Manenzhe
I think art, in general, is important for society, to nurture the softer aspects of what makes us human. More
At PEN America Panel, Min Jin Lee, Roxane Gay Among Those Calling for Diversity
In a PEN America Town Hall, writers including Roxane Gay and Min Jin Lee criticized the publishing industry for its lack of diversity. More
First-of-its-Kind Manual to Help Swahili-Speaking Journalists and Human Rights Advocates Defend Against Online Harassment and Abuse
Note: Press release below in Swahili (NAIROBI, NEW YORK) — The literary and free expression group PEN America launched the Mwongo wa Mafunzo ya Unyanyasaji Mtandaoni, a Swahili-language manual to… More
Sentencing of Poet Wang Zang and His Wife to Prison in China Shows “Repressive Environment” for Free Expression, as PEN America Calls For Their Release
“We condemn the sentencing of Wang Zang for exercising his freedom to write, and of his wife Wang Liqin whose only apparent ‘crime’ was advocating for her husband’s rights,”… More
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