History of PEN America
PEN America celebrated its centenary in 2022, 100 years after its founding in New York City. Here are highlights of PEN America's history and the origins of PEN America. More
Manuscripts Don’t Burn: a Timeline of Literary Censorship, Destruction, and Liberation
As we reach a new turning point in the history of book banning, PEN America has compiled a timeline of the most notorious acts of censorship and how we've… More
PEN America Presents “Free Speech & Hate: History’s Lessons” April 27 at Tulsa Press Club, Tulsa, OK
By examining instances when the use of racial slurs, attacks on marginalized groups, and controversial creative expressions have sparked cultural change, this humanities discussion will tackle the question of… More
New-York Historical Society Presents PEN America at 100: A Century of Defending the Written Word, Opening July 22
PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel, said, “PEN America at 100 opens a remarkable window into PEN America’s century-long effort to unite writers in defense of the freedoms that underwrite… More
Treasures from the PEN America Archives Celebrates 100th Year in NY Historical Society Exhibit Opening July 22
Highlights include a letter from poet T.S. Eliot in 1948, expressing his “distress and terror” over a dinner being organized in his honor; cocktail party invitations sent between 1951… More
5 Myths about Educational Gag Orders
The legislators behind these gag orders are not interested in a productive back-and-forth with educators; what they want is simply to dictate the terms of teachers’ surrender. More
For Educational Gag Orders, The Vagueness Is The Point
We find that instead of clarifying the laws, guidance documents have muddied the waters, further eroding academic freedom and students’ right to learn. More
Conservatives Oppose Educational Gag Orders, Too
Casual observers of the recent wave of educational gag orders could be forgiven for thinking that views on this issue are perfectly polarized along ideological lines. Conservatives support these… More
Educational Gag Orders Seek to Enforce Compulsory Patriotism
Three New Bills Become Law in Florida, Mississippi, and South Dakota Monthly Roundup, March This post is part of a series from PEN America tracking the progress of educational gag orders… More
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