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.
- At the Nobel Peace Conference, PEN America was proud to stand with Reporters sans Frontières and Front Line Defenders for the launch of the #FreeNarges Coalition. Over 25 groups have joined to demand the freedom of Mohammadi, imprisoned in Iran. “We are all stronger working together,” said Karin Karlekar, Director, Writers at Risk, PEN America.
- In a press statement, PEN America noted yet another crackdown by Russia on free press as the media watchdog Roscomnadzor announced the addition of three independent publishing projects and two small resellers to its list of prohibited websites. “This latest crackdown on free speech is a blatant act of desperation by Putin’s government, revealing the regime’s growing anxiety as it struggles to control the narrative while its propaganda increasingly fails to resonate with the Russian public,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, managing director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center at PEN America.
- PEN America’s Timothy Richardson and Mina Haq from the Journalism and Disinformation Program joined Max Read from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue at a webinar on disinformation and how it spreads hosted by Election SOS. In a new blog post, read the discussion on the growing impact of AI on the election and the practical tips the experts offered to journalists covering the intense cycle this year.
- In the latest PEN Ten interview, Sarah Dillard, World Voices Festival & Literary Programs Coordinator, talks to Danzy Senna about her latest novel, Colored Television (Riverhead, 2024). In the book, a novelist-turned-TV-writer grapples with issues of artistic identity, social status, and the experience of being mixed race.”
- PEN America collaborated with Little Free Library and the American Library Association to introduce an interactive map of book ban hotspots and Little Free Library locations.
- PEN America announced that applications are open for the Emerging Voices Workshop in Los Angeles this December. An outgrowth of the Emerging Voices Fellowship, the free workshop serves early-career writers from communities underrepresented in the publishing world.
