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 sharply criticized the Palestinian Authority decision on New Year’s Day to pull Al Jazeera off the air in the West Bank, calling it a “blatant violation of press freedom.”
- PEN America urged the Supreme Court to strike down a U.S. law banning TikTok, joining the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and Free Press in an amicus brief arguing that the ban unjustifiably restricts Americans from accessing ideas, information, and media from abroad in violation of the First Amendment.
- PEN America’s Freedom to Learn Senior Manager Amy Reid, in recognition of her work at New College, was named one of Ms. Magazine’s 25 Top Feminists of 2024, alongside Kamala Harris, Caitlin Clark, Taylor Swift, and more.
- PEN America facilitated a conversation between author Margaret Atwood and Narges Mohammadi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award honoree, for TIME magazine. Atwood is one of several prominent writers and hundreds of supporters who wrote letters to Mohammadi as part of a PEN America campaign on her behalf.
- Research Consultant Jeffrey Adam Sachs and Director of State and Higher Education Policy Jeremy C. Young wrote about what could be on the horizon for censorship in 2025 after the GOP’s victory in the November 2024 election that will have major implications for academic freedom, free speech, and university autonomy in American higher education.
- Young spoke to Harry Keyishian, who as a young professor was asked to sign a “loyalty” oath declaring that he had never been a member of the Communist Party and instead became the lead plaintiff in a landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision.
- The Lens featured an interview with John Corley, a 2024 PEN Prison Writing contest poetry winner and associate editor of The Angolite, the prison publication.
