PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.
- PEN America supports the significant move by a federal court in Florida that struck down key provisions in the state’s 2023 law (HB 1069) that were used to remove books from school libraries. “This ruling is not only a victory for the right to read in Florida, but it also provides important precedent that will bolster legal challenges to book bans across the country,” said Elly Brinkley, staff attorney. Read more here.
- PEN America’s interim co-CEOs Summer Lopez and Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf wrote about the ongoing attacks against free speech at the Smithsonian under President Trump’s administration. “Efforts to rewrite history and silence dissent are a betrayal of our democratic traditions,” they wrote. “When we are afraid to speak the truth about the past or the present, we are sacrificing the possibility of a better future.” Read more here.
- More than 400 national parks, historic sites, monuments and memorials in the United States are reviewing signs and other materials for topics that might be “disparaging” or reflect “corrosive ideology” under an executive order issued by President Trump. Materials flagged for review include signs and books that reflect the brutality of slavery to the impact of climate change. “By dictating which narratives are ‘acceptable,’ the administration seeks to restrict the public’s access to a broad spectrum of accurate historical information which reflect the complexities of American history,” said Washington Managing Director Hadar Harris. Learn more here.
- PEN America announced that actress and bestselling author Hilarie Burton Morgan will moderate a panel discussion among authors to be honored with the Eleanor Roosevelt Awards for Bravery in Literature, including Margaret Atwood, on October 11. Read the press release here. Buy tickets here.
- PEN America Florida Director William Johnson and author Kristen Arnett joined the Florida Freedom to Read Project, Families for Strong Public Schools, Authors Against Book Bans, and a coalition of concerned citizens to address the state-sponsored censorship campaign that has led to hundreds of books removed from public schools without review in violation of state law. Learn more here. Read coverage in the First Coast News here. Read coverage in the Guardian about the wave of book bans here.
- PEN America’s $1.4 million grant from the Mellon Foundation was covered by Publishers Weekly and Words and Money newsletter.
- PEN America co-presented a screening of My Undesirable Friends at Film Forum, New York. Liesl Gerntholtz, managing director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center, introduced the post-screening Q & A with the film’s director and PEN friend and RIMA co-founder Anna Nemzer.
- For the latest Conversation on the Quad, we spoke to 19-year-old rising college sophomore Turner Van Slyke, an organizer with Education and Democracy United (EDU), about raising awareness on college campuses about the attacks to higher education and democracy. Read more here.
- For this week’s Member Spotlight, we spoke to Former PEN America Writing For Justice Fellow JD Mathes about his forthcoming memoir Of Time and Punishment, his social justice work, and writing about his experiences. Read the full interview here.
