St. Joseph’s Library Relocation
Through the initiative of Member Fatima Shaik, the Children's/Young Adult Book Authors Committee helped move an elementary school library from St. Joseph's School in Greenwich Village, New York City,… More
St. Joseph’s Library Relocation
Through the initiative of member Fatima Shaik, the Children's/Young Adult Book Authors Committee helped move an elementary school library from St. Joseph's School in Greenwich Village, New York City,… More
PENPals: A Correspondence with Markus Zusak & Susan Campbell Bartoletti
For me, a book doesn't belong to me; it belongs to the readers. In the case of Hitler Youth, the book belongs to those people who allowed me into… More
CYAB Committee Visits New Orleans
As part of an ongoing relationship between the PEN Children’s Book Committee and the Martin Luther King School of New Orleans, author and photographer Susan Kuklin and author Elizabeth… More
Bright Eyes, Brown Skin: Talking Openly to Children About Racial Differences
Bright eyes, brown skinA heart shaped faceA dimpled chinBright eyes, cheeks that glowChubby fingers, ticklish toesA playful grinA perfect noseVery special hair and clothesBright eyes, ears to listenLips that… More
Writing Melitte
In my young adult novel Melitte, I did not let readers know that she was a slave until the third chapter. I wanted them first to identify with the… More
A Fahrenheit 450 Story
This is a Fahrenheit 450 story, only hot enough to burn my butt, no blazing tale of the censorship wars. While heroic writers speaking truth to power face secret… More
Dracula Is a Pain in the Neck and So Is “Self-censorship”
My brother’s favorite game was “strangle.” As I remember the rules, he would pretend to strangle me, and I, so happy to get my older brother’s attention, waited till… More
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PEN America On 
Salman Rushdie shows us that free speech is life itself
Rushdie knows how vital, how serious the business of storytelling is. Yet in my encounters with him he never took himself seriously, writes @EricaWgnr in @NewStatesman #SalmanRushdie #FreedomToWrite https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2022/08/salman-rushdies-books-show-free-speech-life-itself
@PENamerica, K Desai @saliltripathi curate a majestic set of writers on #IndiaAt75. @SalmanRushdie midnight’s child says a writer's work is "stop the world from going to sleep." Here they write to keep India’s tryst with destiny to "awake to light and freedom." - incl Saumya Roy https://twitter.com/saliltripathi/status/1559033410034831360
When you make this many bureaucratic hurdles to kids reading books, and couple it with a climate of suspicion and surveillance, you are going to, ultimately, stop kids from reading books. It that's not the goal... what is? https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1558858550214115328
