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.

  • Educators, authors, and activists are gathering in Orlando for the “Unified Voices Summit on Educational Freedom,” hosted by a nonpartisan coalition of organizations including PEN America. Featuring Jodi Picoult, Lauren Groff, and Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, among others, the summit seeks to push back against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ censorship agenda and protect public education and free speech. 
  • PEN America announced its 2024 Emerging Voices Fellows, all of whom will participate in a five-month immersive mentorship program and receive $1,500, a professional headshot, and one-year complimentary PEN membership. 
  • High schoolers attended PEN America’s Free Expression Advocacy Institute in New York City this week, where they studied the theories, law, histories, and methodologies behind free expression advocacy at no cost. The institute featured presentations by PEN America’s legal and policy experts, interactive workshops, and discussions sessions. Over the course of the week, all attendees simulated advocacy campaign projects, which they will present at the closing session.
  • PEN America convened its Higher Education in Democracy Summit 2024 in Washington, DC, bringing together higher education and civil society organizations to discuss practical, community-level ways to combat educational gag orders.
  • PEN America and the Artists at Risk Connection condemned a Moscow court for sentencing theater director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to six years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of “justifying terrorism.” “Today’s sentencing of Berkovich and Petriychuk will go down in history as a blatant attack on artistic freedom by Russian authorities who have targeted them as part of a broader campaign of suppression of any public dissent against government policies,” said Polina Sadovskaya, PEN America director for Advocacy and Eurasia.
  • PEN America called a federal judge’s ruling that rap artist B.G. must turn over his written lyrics to probation officials before they are released a “slap in the face” to the right to free expression. “Monitoring the lyrics of a musician is a gross violation of artistic freedom; no artist’s creative work should be subjected to scrutiny by the law,” said Julie Trébault, managing director of Artists at Risk Connection. 

See previous PEN America updates