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Home / PEN America Speaks: How We Defended And Celebrated Free Expression the Week Of May 19

PEN America Speaks: How We Defended And Celebrated Free Expression the Week Of May 19

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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’s annual literary gala was as much a celebration as it was about reckoning with the current moment and defending our right to free expression. Our honorees spoke about the immensity of what is at hand as they accepted their awards. Read their speeches here:
  • Sarah Jessica Parker was honored with the PEN/Audible Literary Award. “To censor a book is to limit imagination, curiosity, connection, empathy and inspiration,” Parker said. “Libraries aren’t just buildings with shelves, they are sanctuaries of possibility.” Read the coverage in People Magazine, and watch our red carpet interview here.
  • Also on the gala red carpet, bestselling author Judy Blume, one of the most banned authors in the country, offered advice to other writers facing censorship. Watch her full interview here.
  • PEN America’s World Voices Festival in Los Angeles and New York were successful events. In LA, we hosted four panels featuring world-renowned writers and filmmakers. Read our rundown of the four days here.
  • PEN America published a new report, Treating Online Abuse Like Spam, that calls on social media platforms to fundamentally rethink how they address online abuse. Drawing inspiration from how email providers manage spam, the report urges platforms to adopt a model that empowers individual users to proactively filter out and quarantine abuse so they can decide for themselves if and when they interact with it.
  • A Phyu will join the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center and ALTSEAN-Burma for an online conversation with writer-activist Ma Thida and ALTSEAN-Burma founder Debbie Stothard to discuss Women’s Voices from the Revolution, an anthology featuring 40 pieces by women in Myanmar written at workshops. Register for the event on May 29 here. Read an excerpt from the anthology here. 
  • In conjunction with our latest Freedom to Write Index, we published a blog about how writers raise their voices in the best way they know how—whether writing a play, a poem, a book, or a blog. Read more about what it means to be an imprisoned writer.
  • Last week The Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer published “summer reading lists” featuring non-existent books by existing authors, generated by Artificial Intelligence. Read why this is dangerous. 
  • PEN America criticized New York University and George Washington University for announcing investigations and disciplinary action—including the withholding of a diploma—affecting student speakers who deviated from their pre-approved remarks at commencement ceremonies. Kristen Shahverdian, program director for Campus Free Speech, said “Student speakers should not face disciplinary action for their remarks at commencement, regardless of whether or not they deviate from approved drafts.” Read the full press release here.
  • PEN America strongly condemned the ongoing threats, intimidation, and violence against Palestinian journalists in Gaza by Hamas, including the reported assault of several journalists and the labeling of media workers as “collaborators” and “spies” by Hamas and Hamas-affiliated factions. Read the full press release here.
  • The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision in Little v. Llano County reversing a preliminary injunction on book bans in the county’s library system. In response, Elly Brinkley, staff attorney for U.S. Free Expression Programs, said “This astounding decision reveals either ignorance of the scale and danger of state censorship or deliberate indifference toward it.” Read the full press release here.
  • In response to the Trump administration’s notification to Harvard University that it is revoking its ability to enroll international students for the 2025-2026 academic year, Jonathan Friedman, Sy Syms managing Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs, said “The move is clearly retaliatory against Harvard, and part of the government’s agenda to undermine academic freedom in favor of state-controlled and favored orthodoxy.” Read our full press release here.
  • PEN America joined the Journalist Assistance Network to address the growing need for legal, safety, and immigration resources for journalists. Read our full press release here.
  • Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN America’s director of Writers at Risk, called the arrest and detention of Indian writer Ali Khan Mahmudabad “a shocking affront to free expression.” Read our full press release here.
  • Kristen Shahverdian, program director for Campus Free Speech, was quoted in the Princeton Alumni Weekly on how free speech is frequently politicized. “Claims for and against free speech have swung from the right to the left and back again,” Shahverdian said. “Often people use the framing of free speech to defend free speech that they prefer, regardless of where they stand on the ideological spectrum.” Read the full article here. 
  • Sabrina Baêta, senior program manager in PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, was quoted in a Boston Globe newsletter on military library book bans. “We don’t want students to be coming across uncomfortable topics in their lives for the first time in real life,” she said. “We want that to be in a book. What softer introduction is there?” Read the full newsletter here.

See previous PEN America updates

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