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 announced the 2025 PEN America Literary Awards longlist for the upcoming ceremony on May 8. Read the full list here.
- PEN America condemned the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and called it a further step in dismantling democracy. “This is about limiting access to education and dismantling our nation’s core commitment to education and the freedom to learn as the bedrock of our democracy,” said Hadar Harris, managing director of PEN America’s Washington D.C. office. Read our full statement here.
- In a win for PEN America, the organization’s Freedom to Learn Team and Laura Benitez successfully submitted testimony to amend a bill in North Dakota that would undermine tenure in higher education throughout the state. This advocacy helped amplify the concerns of faculty and students and the bill’s sponsor shared the final amendment which included significant improvements to the post-tenure review process and the house passed the amended bill. Read more about it here, and the bill here.
- PEN America filed an amicus brief, joining the legal fight against detention and potential deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestine activist, and recent graduate at Columbia University. Read more here.
- South Carolina, which has already banned ten books statewide, could ban 10 more books following an upcoming review and vote on April 1. The list includes books by Ellen Hopkins and Sarah J. Mass among others. Read the full story here.
- PEN America joined 27 organizations asking the Trump administration to rebuke the order shutting down U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which included organizations like Voice for America and Radio Free Europe, and called for the protection of its journalists. Read our press release here.
- PEN America co-hosted a read-in with author Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 school in Waterloo, Iowa. After a school district there cancelled their annual African-American Read-In over fears of losing federal funding, Hannah-Jones and other authors came together to do their own read-in. PEN America’s Sabrina Adams was at the event. Read our coverage here and local coverage here, here, and here.
- As more censorial bills are under consideration at the 2025 Florida Legislative Session, PEN America’s Florida office, along with nine grassroots and state organizations, all United Voices Network partners, mobilized to Tallahassee on March 11, 2025, together representing almost every corner of the state. Read more here.
- PEN America compiled a list of words being banned by the federal government and called it “utterly chilling.” Read our full list here.
- PEN America condemned Meta’s legal campaign against whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams promoting her tell-all memoir, Careless People. “Meta must immediately drop its legal attacks against Wynn-Williams and instead focus its efforts on answering to the appalling allegations laid out in her book,” said Viktorya Vilk, director of digital safety and free expression. Read the full statement here. Read The New York Times story which quotes Vilk here.
- PEN America expressed disappointment over University of Texas banning drag shows across all its campuses stating alliance with federal and state policy. Kristen Shahverdian, PEN America’s program director for Campus Free Speech said, “A blanket ban on one form of expression is a shameful policy; and it will inevitably have unintended consequences, hampering forms of theatrical and artistic expression across these campuses.” Read more here.
- PEN America expressed concern over the proposal to gut the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. “As an organization dedicated to books and literature, we call on Congress to ensure the IMLS remains strong, independent, and robustly funded,” said Jonathan Friedman, Sy Syms managing director of US free expression programs at PEN America. Read our press statement here.
- PEN International released their case list for 2025 which includes the rise of book bans in the United States among one of the list’s most alarming trends. Read more here.
- PEN America President, Jennifer Finney Boylan, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post titled, ‘What is a trans woman, really?’ Read it here.
- PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman, Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expressions Program, is quoted in a New York Times story on the Republican government’s change from supporting free speech to restricting it. Read here.
- PEN America’s Florida office managing director, Katie Blankenship, and executive director of Artists at Risk Convention, Julie Trébault, was quoted in Documentary Magazine about the threats O Cinema in Miami is facing after screening the Academy Award winning documentary No Other Land. Read our statement here. Read the story here.
- PEN America’s Tim Richardson, program director of journalism and disinformation, was quoted in a story about threats to the press in the United States by USA Today. Read it here.
- PEN America’s Sabrina Baeta, senior manager for the freedom to read team appeared on ZDF, a public tv station in Germany. Watch here.
- PEN America was quoted in an article in Inside Higher Ed in a story about an anti-DEI law signed by the governor of Wyoming. Read the article here.
- This week on Shelf Love, our series celebrating romance writers in collaboration with Authors Against Book Bans, we spoke to Katee Robert about the importance of love stories for everyone. Read the full interview here.
