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Take Action: Right to Read in American Prisons Project
Over the course of the past year, PEN America’s Right to Read in American Prisons Project focused on ways prisons and jails across the country restricted access to literature… More
Washington’s Ban on the Booty
These policies are not only controversial; they also have harmful impacts on prisoners, their relationships, and female staff working in the institutions. More
Refused: 15 years as a Books to Prison Program Volunteer
While many states have banned book lists that limit the books which can be mailed into prisons and jails, the unofficial censorship of the mailroom staff is even more… More
Abolitionist Organizing: Brick by Brick, Book by Book
Struggles against prison censorship remind us that information is power and that prisons maintain their power, in part, by preventing the spread of dangerous ideas. More
Jeanie Austin and Patricia Prewitt: An Interview
She described her day, emphasized the importance incarcerated people place on books, and emphatically asked that ALA not forget about incarcerated people. More
Forbidden Knowledge
History warns us of the dangers of banning books, but the effects of information control on imprisoned women are intimate and profound. More
Prison Book Bans, Protect Mass Incarceration
I resist the dehumanization that prisons create, which is further maintained by unjust censorship. More
The PEN Ten: An Interview with the 2022 Emerging Voices Fellows
Identity can serve as a type of complex shorthand. It gives us the power to declare ourselves to the world, but it can also flatten and politicize us in… More
Court in India Urged to Release Writer Vernon Gonsalves, as His Health Worsens
“The continued detention of Vernon Gonsalves puts his life at imminent risk and stems from arbitrary accusations which have yet to be proven, while he has languished for years… More
PEN America Calls for the Immediate Acquittal and Release of Mongolian Activist Munkhbayar Chuluundorj Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Protesting China-Mongolia Relations
“The harsh and unjust verdict in Munkhbayar Chuluundorj’s trial is a grave violation of the fundamental right to free expression,” says Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to… More