Fatima Shaik: ”Books Like These Are Meant to be Troubling”
On Tuesday, December 6, the Accomack County Public Schools Board, in eastern Virginia, voted to return the books To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn to county classrooms. The… More
Toni Morrison: On Censorship, Literacy, and Literature
"I come from a race of people for whom, at one time in this country it was illegal to be taught to read, it was illegal and punishable by… More
A Poet’s Return: Pavel Šrut’s Worm-Eaten Light
"For 10 years after Worm-Eaten Light was banned, Pavel couldn’t write poetry even if he’d wanted to because it had lost its meaning in new reality of normalization. Through… More
Outsider Nonfiction
"I did not set out to write a definitive transgender book. I wrote and photographed six individuals, ages 16 to 22, who fall under the transgender umbrella. This left… More
The Color Purple and the Toppling of American Gods
"In The Color Purple lies the truth, in its pages lie glorious, flammable ideas: how many fires could be lit with the simple, indomitable truth that a Black girl… More
The Principal of the Thing
"Covertly removing books is a way of circumventing any conversation about why you are removing these books from libraries and, in effect, schools, necessary if you were to officially… More
Perumal Murugan, a Literary Suicide
"The trend in India of writers being harassed and stigmatized for their work is troubling. It is imperative that writers from both inside and outside India support these voices,… More
Don’t Pity the Subject Being Smashed, Rage at the Object Doing the Smashing
"That is why The Bluest Eye is dangerous and always situated on a banned books list. It exposes the violence that besets the human condition as a result of… More
Cold War Dress Code: Remembering Inna Lisnyanskaya
Paradoxically, the Metropole affair both silenced Lisnyanskaya as a poet in the USSR and liberated her from the restrictions imposed by publishing (self-censorship being an obligatory tool in the… More
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PEN America On 
Bad news from Mississippi today, where the state senate passed an educational gag order that applies to all public universities and K-12 schools. Among other things, the bill could threaten recognition of the Black Law Students Association at the University of Mississippi.
We have just learned the Myanmar military have sentenced Ko Jimmy and Phyo Zayar Thaw to death for alleged anti-coup activities.
https://www.myanmar-now.org/en/news/democracy-veteran-ko-jimmy-and-former-nld-mp-phyo-zayar-thaw-sentenced-to-death
Oh, I’ve been waiting for this little gift for a bit now. Here’s a sneak peek for the rest of you! @PENamerica #reginalddwaynebetta #prisonwriting
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