The PEN Pod: The Propagation of Disinformation and Protocols of Protest with Suzanne Nossel
“It’s an ecosystem—a dysfunctional, polluted ecosystem. Within that ecosystem, among the most powerful actors—no question about it—are the social media companies.” More
The PEN Pod: Truth Telling with Sanderia Faye
“We are the truth-tellers—even in fiction, we are the truth-tellers. We have to continue to write, and even beyond our pain, we have to continue to write.” More
The PEN Pod: Everywhere You Don’t Belong with Gabriel Bump
“What I hope that we can gain from this moment and the Black Lives Matter movement in general is that all Black lives matter.” More
The PEN Pod: How We Write Our Survival with Lisa Ko
“Even when the future does feel uncertain, like right now, it feels important to. . . imagine a future for ourselves as well as our characters.” More
The PEN Pod: On The Importance of Centering Marginalized Narratives with Jaquira Díaz
“I would hope that they would find in my story that my story was not unique, that so many of us go through this suffering in silence.” More
The PEN Pod: Tough Questions About a Critical Week with Suzanne Nossel
“It’s a very unsettling moment. . . we share a sense of alarm at the naked racism and brutality that people, and particularly Black Americans, have experienced.” More
Black Literature – Past, Present, and Future: A Reading List
This week’s reading list features a mix of classic and contemporary novels, essay collections, and poetry collections from Black authors. More
The PEN Pod: Examining Our Crises of Democracy with Karen Attiah
“A public health disaster—an epidemic—is also a political crisis. . . I see both things [the pandemic and racial injustice] as two different viruses that are plaguing our society.” More
The PEN Pod: On the Ground in Minneapolis with Julio-César Chávez
“There are risks that we [as journalists] know and accept when we undertake these assignments. . . But there’s protesters that are going through the same things.” More
Alert Us
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PEN America On 
A Republican state lawmaker has launched an investigation into whether Texas school districts carry any of 850 book titles in their libraries -- 850! -- wants to know how many copies they have and how much money they spent on them.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/26/texas-school-books-race-sexuality/
A concentrated set of users on Twitter drive 70% of the hate content targeting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, a new analysis found. https://bit.ly/3benywa
Important article by @PENamerica ‘s @SuzanneNossel Chinese Censorship Is Going Global https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/26/chinese-censorship-enes-kanter-celtics-browder-is-going-global/
