Florida Office
Who We Are
PEN America’s Florida office was established in Miami in 2023 to address the rampant free expression infringements in Florida. The Florida office works throughout the state to secure academic freedom and free expression and celebrate the written word without censorship. PEN America Florida expands the organization’s footprint, equipping it to advance free expression policy priorities in a state that is leading the country in efforts to curtail free speech and expression.
Florida overtook Texas during the last school year by banning more books in public school classrooms and libraries than any other state, according to PEN America’s data. Florida now ranks first in the nation and accounts for more than 40% of all documented bans. The state’s speech-constricting laws, policies, and book bans have become a template for conservative activists and lawmakers behind the movement that has led to nearly 6,000 instances of book bans since 2021. Books about race and by authors of color, along with topics focused on sexual orientation and gender are most frequently ripped from shelves, robbing students of the diversity of ideas and perspectives they need in a pluralistic society.
PEN America has been at the forefront of documenting and defending against this spreading censorship—unseen since the 1950s McCarthy-era Red Scare. The PEN America Florida office will allow the organization to expand this work to ensure that Florida is a bastion of free expression and academic freedom.
Our Impact
The PEN America Florida office works on multiple fronts to launch advocacy strategies across the state to not only counter the Florida legislature’s attempts to impede First Amendment freedoms, but also seeks to affirmatively secure Florida as a home to free expression and robust academic excellence.
The PEN America Florida team applies legal advocacy, policy and legislative initiatives, and community organizing to move the needle in Florida. The team approaches this work understanding that Florida is being used as a blueprint for censorious extremism across the country. Our mission is to change this trajectory and ensure that Florida serves as an example not of extremism but of freedom and democracy.
Unified Voices Network
“Thank you for not giving up on Florida”
– A rallying cry at the Unified Voices Summit in Orlando
The United Voices Network (UVN) is a statewide network of parents, teachers, students, and public interest organizations who believe Florida’s children deserve a safe learning environment free from government overreach and censorship. The UVN hosts regular virtual meetings, annual in-person programming, and an annual United Voices Summit.
Legislative Advocacy
The PEN America Florida team is dedicated to countering legislative campaigns of censorship in Florida, through written statements and coalition letters, and ongoing collaboration with Florida lobbyists and politicians each legislative session. Learn more about our 2024 legislative priorities >>
2025 Legislative Session: PEN America Florida will have a robust legislative advocacy strategy for 2025 and is planning Lobby Days to support educational freedom and public education. Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to the next session, which will kick off in March 2025.
Legal Advocacy
Florida is currently a hotbed for litigation and monumental court decisions around issues of book bans and other free speech issues, which may come to influence how they are handled in courts across the nation. The PEN America Florida team works closely with PEN America’s legal team to not only pursue litigation, such as PEN America v. Escambia County School Board but also engages in legal advocacy to support the groundswell of litigation pushing back against the wave of censorship in Florida.
Our Research
Over the past three years, Florida has endured an invasive and far reaching attack on rights to free speech and expression. This has resulted in Florida banning more books than any other state in the country,1 as well as the passage of legislation and policy that has undermined academic freedom, created a culture of fear and self-censorship, and sowed chaos and division in Florida’s public education system.
Under Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida has faced the country’s most intensive rollback of Americans’ right to freely express themselves. This report provides in-depth analysis of key pieces of legislation across a range of issues to demonstrate the robust scope of the state’s attacks on speech, and identifies commonalities in the strategies and rhetoric being used to erode free expression in the state and across the country.
