What to Expect 2020
As we near Election Day, PEN America is working to prepare you for what to expect this campaign season. Learn how to spot, check, and stop disinformation and defend… More
Pavel Sheremet | Status: Murdered | Ukraine
Pavel Sheremet, a Belarusian-born Russian journalist who worked in Belarus and Ukraine, died in a car explosion in Kyiv on July 20, 2016. The Ukraine Prosecutor’s Office said the… More
Kirill Serebrennikov | Status: Convicted | Russia
Kirill Serebrennikov, a prominent Russian theater director, was put under house arrest on August 23 on charges of fraud. More
Stella Nyanzi | Status: On Trial | Uganda
Jump to: Case Background Case Updates In Their Words Dr. Stella Nyanzi, a Ugandan medical anthropologist, activist, and writer, was convicted after writing and posting a poem online, in which she criticized Ugandan… More
Chen Yunfei | Status: Conditional Release | China
Chen Yunfei is a performance artist who works at the intersection of human rights activism and art. His art is overtly political, promoting the Chinese pro-democracy movement. More
PEN America Launches Six New Regional Chapters, Expanding Nationwide Reach
“At a time of exceptional threats to free expression and open discourse, our chapters will bring years of mobilization, activism and organizing among writing communities across the country to… More
PEN America Report Explores Pernicious Practice of Banning Books in Nation’s Prisons
"Literature offers a lifeline for incarcerated people in the midst of a dehumanizing system." More
Oleg Sentsov | Status: Released | Russia
Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian film director, was sentenced to 20 years in a Russian prison on charges of terrorism on August 25, 2015. PEN believes that the charges stem… More
Roman Sushchenko | Status: Released | Russia
Roman Sushchenko, a Ukrainian journalist, was detained in Moscow on September 30, 2016, on charges of espionage, and has since been detained in Lefortovo Prison. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB)… More
MEDIA ADVISORY: PEN America to Join Vigil Honoring Slain Journalist Christopher Allen
Allen was covering a rebel offensive in the town of Kaya, located near South Sudan’s border with Uganda, and was embedded with opposition forces for two weeks when fighting… More
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PEN America On 
Tonight's debate is an exercise in free speech and the exchange of ideas. With a new book on those topics and as CEO of the free expression and literary org @PENamerica, I have some thoughts before tonight's #PresidentialDebate2020 THREAD 1/6
TOMORROW: Join us at 4PM ET for the first in PEN America's fall series "Free Expression and the Humanities" organized with the Institute of the Humanities & Global Cultures at the University of Virginia. Register: https://ihgc.as.virginia.edu/free-expression-humanities-pen-americaihgc