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 hosted its annual literary gala Thursday at the American Museum of Natural History. Amber Ruffin was the host for the evening that honored iconic actor, producer and independent publisher Sarah Jessica Parker, Macmillan Publishers CEO Jon Yaged, Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, and the courageous imprisoned poet Galal El-Behairy, 34, who has been jailed in Egypt for seven years for his poems critical of the government. “Free speech is something we have to fight for,” said Ruffin. “We can joke about it – until we can’t. That’s the reality of where we’re at right now.” Read our press release here, and coverage by AP, People, and USA Today.
- PEN America published more conversations from the PEN World Voices Festival, including a panel on the power of the personal narrative in film featuring Emmy award-winning director Ava DuVernay and Shiori Itō (read our rundown here) and a panel on writing as resistance featuring memoirist Tahir Hamut Izgil and Iraqi American poet Dunya Mikhail. (Read our rundown here.)
- Mica Pollock, Professor of Education Studies at UC San Diego, and Hirokazu Yoshikawa Professor of Globalization and Education and University Professor at NYU urged parents and students to fight for public education in the face of furiously target attempts by the Trump administration to cut funding. Read more here.
- Frequently-banned author Dave Eggers joined authors, students, and non-profit groups including PEN America to discuss the impact of ongoing bans in St. Francis, and strategize about further resistance to book bans in the school district about 40 miles north of Minneapolis. Read more here.
- The documentary The Librarians is “chilling, timely, and deeply moving,” wrote PEN America’s Florida office director William Johnson after hosting two screenings and discussions. Sarah Jessica Parker, who was the executive producer of the film, was honored at the gala last evening. Read more here.
- We interviewed Lil Miss Hot Mess, drag queen and author, who made headlines when U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) led a presentation arguing that the federal government should defund news broadcasters NPR and PBS for airing a segment featuring the drag queen. Read our interview here.
- PEN America’s LA office director Allison Lee wrote an op-ed in the Claremont Courier on Salman Rushdie withdrawing from a speaking event at Claremont McKenna College following protests and its cost on free speech. Read the piece here.
- Jeje Mohamed and Yemile Bucay were quoted in a story by the Poynter Institute on legal support for journalists. Read it here.
