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 released a new report, Exploring How to Build Community-Level Resilience Against Disinformation, detailing our trusted messenger workshops focused on building resilience to false information in Dallas, Phoenix and Miami; webinars on topics like cognitive bias, fact-checking standards, and the role of media influencers; and partnerships with three regional nonprofits to pilot their own anti-disinformation initiatives. Read the report here. Watch the webinar explaining its findings.
- PEN America joined the Student Press Law Center and nine other free speech and journalism organizations to condemn the detention of Rumeysa Ozturk, reportedly based on opinions expressed in a student newspaper op-ed. Read the letter here.
- PEN America announced the winners of the 2024 PEN America/L’Engle Rahman Prize for Mentorship. The prize honors four mentor/mentee pairs in PEN America’s longstanding prison writing mentorship program, which links established writers with those currently incarcerated. Read the honorees here.
- PEN America joined students, teachers, educators, and writers including Jodi Picoult and Khaled Hosseini to fight book bans in St. Francis, Minnesota. Read more about their multi-pronged approach here. Read our full statement here.
- PEN America warned that South Carolina could soon have more statewide book bans than any state. We explained how that happened and interviewed the students of DAYLO, a student group in South Carolina. Read our explainer with the ACLU of South Carolina. Read the interview with Daylo.
- PEN America said the closing of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) sends a chilling message and endangers journalists working or imprisoned in hostile countries. “Silencing these platforms doesn’t just cut off a vital source of truth—it betrays the very writers we relied on to expose corruption and abuse,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, managing director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom To Write Center. Read our full statement here.
- PEN America condemned the killing of two Palestinian journalists Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour. “Their deaths are a tragedy for their families and community and a great loss in the fight against censorship when it comes to the war in Gaza,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, managing director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom To Write Center. Read our full statement here.
- PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman was quoted in Publisher’s Weekly’s coverage about the gutting of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Speaking on behalf of PEN America, the Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expression programs said, “The funding provided through IMLS supports improvements and innovation, ensures the continued operations of small and rural libraries, and helps libraries meet the specific needs of their communities,” Read the full story here.
- Friedman spoke to LGBTQ Nation about the banning of concepts under the Trump administration. Read the interview here.
- PEN America called the sentencing of acclaimed French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal an injustice. “At 80 years old and in declining health, imprisoning him for peacefully expressing his views is not only an abuse of power but a flagrant violation of his basic human rights,” said Karin Karlekar, Director of Writers at Risk at PEN America. Read more here.
- PEN America put out an action alert to urge Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to veto SB 1, a bill that would ban DEI among other restrictions to higher ed. DeWine signed the bill into law.
- Amy Reid participated in a webinar put on by the MLA about Legislative Encroachments on Higher Ed. She also participated in a keynote panel at the Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) conference
- PEN America, along with six journalist safety organizations, continues to provide help to US-based journalists at risk through the Journalist Safety Urgent Care Helpline, reachable at urgentcare@electionsos.org. Read more here.
- PEN America’s Director of Writers at Risk, Karin Karlekar, was in Geneva, Switzerland for a UNHCR for Iran advocacy with partners. PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index data, sections on the crackdown on writers and artists as a group, and a number of key cases were included in reports.
- PEN America hosted Chinese political cartoonist Badiucao and Emmy-nominated journalist Melissa Chan for an evening discussing their new graphic novel, You Must Take Part in Revolution, at P&T Knitwear in New York City. Read our post-event notes here. Buy the book here.
- PEN America also hosted Japanese writer and two-time National Book Award nominee Yoko Tawada with Vietnamese American writer Monique Truong at an event in Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City. They discussed Tawada’s newly translated book, Suggested in the Stars, and the language around poetry and nationality. Buy the book here.
- On Shelf Love, we spoke to lawyer-turned-romance-writer Dylan Allen about the resurgence of the genre, how social media provides a platform for writers, and harboring hope in difficult times. Read the full interview here.
- For this week’s PEN Ten Literary Programs Consultant Claire Mehrotra spoke to Saou Ichikawa about her novel Hanchibakku, which was recently translated to English by Polly Barton as Hunchback, and made the International Booker Prize longlist. Read the full interview here.
