New Report: Book Bans Spike by 33% Over Last School Year
“The toll of the book banning movement is getting worse. More kids are losing access to books, more libraries are taking authors off the shelves, and opponents of free… More
PEN America Index of School Book Bans – 2022-2023
PEN America's 2022-2023 Index of Banned Books found 3,362 instances of individual books banned. This searchable banned book list includes each documented book ban in the 2022-23 school year. More
Mengyin Lin | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
Every person’s reality is different from another’s, even from those who are closest. How do we move forward? How do we think about the future without overlooking the present? More
Review of Over 20,000 Books in Georgia School District is “Outrageous”
Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America, said: “This outrageous policy decision is sure to lead to censorship. Schools and school libraries must serve the information-needs… More
Lisa Wartenberg | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
I was interested in the stories young girls are told, and how wildly violent these can be –– reflecting, of course, the atrocities of the larger landscape. More
PEN America Comments on Federal Government Appointment in Response to School Book Bans
PEN America has been at the forefront of documenting and defending against the unprecedented rise of school book bans nationwide. Texas, Florida and Missouri lead with the most books banned currently.… More
Verity McKay | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
A woman pushed to the brink by the pressures of every day life in the wake of carrying around an awful secret for far too long. The awful secret… More
PEN America Criticizes U.S. Human Rights Record at the U.N. Human Rights Committee
PEN America submitted a report to the United Nations Committee on Civil and Political Rights, criticizing the human rights record of the United States on free expression, discrimination, and… More
Annabelle Ulaka | 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize Winner
After completing a story, I show it to people who tell me what the words mean. These people are the readers. More