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 2026 PEN America Literary Gala, we honored the Rutherford County Library Alliance, a group of volunteers leading a local effort to stop book bans, with the PEN/Benenson Courage Award. Read more about their courageous work. Watch journalist Ali Velshi’s interview with representatives of the group, and read more about them and PEN/Audible Literary Service Awardee Ann Patchett in The Tennessean.
- New York Magazine’s Jasmine Vojdani painted a vivid picture of the gala, a night brimming with literary glamour, in her Book Gossip newsletter. “I think it’s terrific,” a guest told Vojdani. “It’s always interesting to see how an important 100-year-old institution like PEN America stays relevant.” See more, and check out more coverage in AM New York.
- Missed the 2026 World Voices Festival? Catch up on some of our favorite panels, which spanned topics like writing about the unimaginable, the magic and limits of the archive, the depiction of cities in novels, narrating Palestine, the value of translation in today’s world, and the complicated nature of home, belonging, and literature.
- More than 40 organizations including PEN America voiced opposition to an effort by the FCC to consider new TV ratings for shows with LGBTQ+ content. “This disturbing idea is a direct assault on our freedom of speech, and the right to create and receive art, knowledge, and culture that should be guaranteed for all,” said Jon Friedman, Sy Syms managing director of U.S. free expression programs. Read more.
- Since 2020, PEN America has advocated against more than 500 bills, executive orders, and system-wide regulations meant to censor educational speech. Overwhelmingly, the targets of this campaign have been faculty members — but Texas Tech University System has now leveled an attack at students, prohibiting them from conducting any research or writing that centers on “sexual orientation or gender identity.” Learn more.
- PEN America’s Campus Free Expression Advocacy Fellows have been busy defending and educating their peers about free expression programming at their schools. Catch up on their work here.
- Along with six other organizations, PEN America urged Congress to oppose H.R. 2616, a bill intended to censor speech and instruction in schools related to gender and LGBTQ+ identities. “A memoir by an intersex person; a U.S. history lesson that references the LGBTQ+ rights movement; or a biology textbook that mentions clownfish or other animals who change sex could all be censored under this bill,” the groups explained. Read more.
- PEN America raised alarm about an upcoming vote by the Regents at the Texas State University System on whether to end tenure at all three of their 2-year campuses — a decision that could “pound another nail into the coffin of academic freedom in Texas,” said Amy Reid, Freedom to Learn program director. Read more.
- PEN America’s report “Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans” revealed that 29% of the unique titles banned over the 2024-2025 school year were nonfiction. See some of those banned titles here.
- McKenna Samson, Freedom to Read program manager, spoke to WBIR about the banning of Alex Haley’s Roots in Tennessee. Watch here.
- In an article about controversies surrounding graduation speakers, Forbes quotes Kristen Shahverdian, director of campus free speech, stating that “institutions must model resilience, tolerance, and engagement with speech, and resist reversing their choices in the face of discontent and pressure.” Read more.
