The Fate of NDAs in the #MeToo Era
Women are speaking out and challenging the legal norms that have long coerced them into silence, suggesting that we need a widespread reconsideration of when and how NDAs may… More
Writing from Within: On the 2018 PEN Prison Writing Contest
How do we respect the gravity of the stories we receive? How do we support the voices of those vanished from our society through incarceration? More
Writers and Online Harassment: Evidence of a Chilling Effect
Writers have been sounding alarm bells about online harassment for years now, yet inconsistent responses from social media companies, an outdated yet prevailing attitude that online abuse is not… More
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay
For a collection of essays of exceptional literary merit... More
Amplifying DREAMer Voices: The DACA Debate and Free Expression
The uncertainty surrounding their status has driven many DREAMers into the shadows, like many of this country’s other undocumented residents. As a result, the current debate about their future… More
“No Longer a Question of Freedom of Speech”: Squashing Dissent in the Run-Up to Egypt’s Elections
Access to information within the country has been targeted throughout Sisi’s tenure, with nearly 500 websites blocked in Egypt since May 2017; but this targeting rose to a new… More
Interrogating the Status Quo
In an era where powerful men are being toppled and long-held notions of “acceptable behavior” are changing, writers remind us that the rules governing language are also not free… More
Half-Free: How “Conditional Release” Continues to Limit Free Expression for Writers at Risk
The goals of incarceration and limited release are one in the same: to suppress free expression and to enforce silence. More
Nine Years: Liao Yiwu Reflects on Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia
My dear friend, you’ve gone. In a darkness so black I can’t see the fingers of my extended hand, you could yet see a trace of light. You always… More
Who—or What—Is Jenna Abrams?
The good news is these trolls aren’t infallible. In the case of @Jenn_Abrams, the supposedly American account was set up with a Russian phone number... More
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