PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

•  PEN America mourned the death of 47-year-old Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died a political prisoner in a Russian penal colony. PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said Navalny “embodied the spirit of a free Russia with a spine of steel, unremitting determination and a spirit of derring-do.”
• PEN America urged Congress to pass landmark legislation to protect human rights defenders abroad as they face reprisals from their governments. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA-02) introduced the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act that would create a new visa category allowing up to 500 human rights defenders a year facing reprisals at home to enter the United States. 
• Anh-Thu Vo, research and advocacy coordinator from PEN America, alongside PEN International and the Vietnamese PEN Abroad Centre, delivered an oral statement at the Fourth UPR Cycle pre-session in Geneva on February 13 providing recommendations to protect writers and dissidents at risk in Vietnam. This statement aligned with our joint UPR submission.
• PEN America CEO, Suzanne Nossel wrote for the Boston Globe about the threats to free speech, academic freedom, and ideological diversity on university campuses. She suggests that they can only be addressed through broad, campus-wide reforms across areas like orientation programs, classroom teaching, extracurricular training, messaging, and policies enforced by leadership to transform campus culture to support open exchange. 
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) was a partner for the PANAF Summit, the first regional gathering on artistic freedom in Africa. ARC’s Africa Regional Representative, Sam Brakarsh, attended the Summit in Zanzibar and presented ARC and the AMANI Network’s work and developing strategy in the region. 
• ARC convened an Experts Meeting on Cultural Rights and Development. The session commenced with a dialogue surrounding participants’ international advocacy objectives for 2024 about cultural rights. This forthcoming meeting will center on the Special Rapporteur’s involvement and strategic approach in addressing the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
• In late 2023, PEN America submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry in Ukraine detailing Russia’s extensive attacks on Ukrainian cultural infrastructure. 
• PEN America and PEN International jointly submitted a contribution to the United Nations Independent Expert’s report on the root causes of violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This submission focuses on legislative threats to free expression in United States public educational institutions.
• PEN America condemned the unjust conviction and sentencing of Chinese labor and women’s rights activist Li Qiaochu. Li, who is the partner of imprisoned activist, essayist, and PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write awardee Xu Zhiyong. 
• PEN America hosted our former President, Jennifer Egan, for a talk with the staff, where she discussed her process as a writer and the use of language. Read more here. 
• PEN America, joined by a coalition of authors – including Khaled Hosseini, Maia Kobabe, and Molly Knox Ostertag– sent a letter to Rockingham County, Virginia, Public Schools protesting a recent ban on over 50 books and urging that the district return these books to shelves.
• In response to the ongoing investigation into Harvard University by the House Education and Workforce Committee, Jeremy Young, director, of the Freedom to Learn program at PEN America said: “This investigation is turning into a fishing expedition. The charges of antisemitism at Harvard are serious and demand urgent action. But when a congressional committee begins probing the internal affairs of a private university, it must act with great restraint, and the utmost respect for academic freedom and institutional autonomy.”
• Sam LaFrance, Free Expression and Education editorial project manager wrote about the legislators in Nebraska who are trying to undermine higher education in the state in the name of destroying “woke” ideologies. Two bills would threaten tenure, academic freedom, and university autonomy. If passed, the bills would put the future of higher education in Nebraska in serious doubt.
• PEN America Digital Safety team conducted a training for Scholastic for authors and another with Internews for women journalists in exile.

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• PEN America criticized Barnard College for quietly rewriting its policy to prohibit departments from posting “political statements” in an apparent effort to suppress pro-Palestinian speech. “The swift rollout of these new website policies, without faculty consultation, makes plain that they are a response to pro-Palestinian speech that someone wanted to suppress,” said Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education programs at PEN America. 
• PEN America issued a statement condemning a Missouri political candidate for torching LGBTQ-themed books, our Freedom to Read Director, Kasey Meehan, called it “appalling” and said it “brings to mind a violent history of suppression and denigration of books, ideas, and LGBTQ people.” 
• Sam LaFrance our Free Speech and Education expert, wrote about the six bills in various states that impose restrictions related to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, critical race theory, and other issues in public higher education, likely chilling academic freedom and campus free speech through vague definitions and penalties threatening free expression. 
• PEN America expressed anguish about the impact of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on writers, artists, and culture and said they would continue efforts to protect imperiled artists and writers while speaking out on threats to free expression from the conflict.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) strongly condemned the arbitrary detention of Iranian rapper Vafa Ahmadpour and called for his immediate release. Vafa Ahmadpour’s arrest is another terrible example of the unjust persecution faced by rappers and artists like Toomaj Salehi and Saman Yasin, who dare speak out against government policies.
• Katie Blankenship, director of PEN America’s Florida office condemned the two bills introduced in the Florida Legislature, HB 757 and SB 1780, which are blatant attempts to undermine freedom of the press. “These bills seek to instill fear in journalists and their sources, chilling constitutionally protected speech.”
• PEN America strongly condemned the Chinese court’s decision to give Australian novelist, pro-democracy blogger, and political commentator Yang Hengjun a suspended death sentence and called for his immediate and unconditional release.
• PEN America and PEN International jointly submitted a contribution to the Special Rapporteur’s report on academic freedom and free expression in educational institutions. This submission will focus largely on threats to academic freedom in the United States, but it also includes a small section on international scholar-writers and trends in threats against their academic freedom.

• See previous PEN America updates

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• PEN America hosted an author’s event in Los Angeles on Wednesday for the launch of writer and comedian Moshe Kasher’s new memoir, Subculture Vulture.  The event was interrupted by protests that eventually prevented the programming from proceeding. While most protesters left after expressing themselves, one declined and was removed by security. We regret that this step had to be taken for the event to proceed.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection hosted the panel “Empowerment of Ukrainian Artistry,” moderated by ARC’s Representative for Ukraine Protective Programs, Oleksandra Yakubenko at the Ukraine Vision conference in Stockholm.
• PEN America Florida Director Katie Blankenship and free expression expert Sam LaFrance, wrote about their concern with a string of bills that would unfavorably impact free speech and free expression, freedom of the press, young people’s use of social media, and LGBTQ+ rights.
• PEN America Editorial Director Lisa Tolin compiled a list of 30 films you can watch, based on books that were challenged by censorship in the U.S.
• Kasey Meehan, the Freedom to Read program director at PEN America, appeared on the Eagle Reels vodcast to discuss the latest movement to ban books and Berkshire County’s case involving the most banned book in America.
• Meehan also spoke to Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian about book bans.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection proudly announced its collaboration with the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition opens to the public on April 20 and runs until November 24.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection published a profile on Burmese multimedia artist and painter Thiha and the risks he took to continue creating art.
• PEN America condemned the Russian government for placing London-based Grigory Chkhartishvili, better known under his pen name Boris Akunin, on its wanted list for alleged criminal activity. Akunin, a best-selling author of historical detective fiction and one of Russia’s most popular novelists, has been an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s atrocities committed in Ukraine.

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• In response to American University’s release of new policies undermining free expression, PEN America’s Kristen Shahverdian, senior manager of Free Expression and Education, voiced concerns about the restrictions on protests inside campus, requirements for posters to “promote inclusivity,” and vague membership rules for student clubs that limit open discourse.
• PEN America, in collaboration with 13 former college presidents as part of its Champions of Higher Education initiative, held a summit in Washington, D.C., addressing legislative threats to higher education, including educational gag orders. 
• Sam LaFrance, manager of editorial projects for Free Expression and Education,  wrote about Wisconsin’s AB 510, touted as promoting “parental rights” in public schools. She argues that it rather facilitates censorship by requiring advance notification to parents of any “controversial subject,” including gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial identity, threatening public education. 
• For Los Angeles PEN Out Loud, we hosted Venita Blackburn joined by Steph Cha, to discuss her debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California. A “bonafide knock-out,” Blackburn’s layered tale follows a woman– writer, sister, aunt– as the death of her brother begins to unravel the reality she knows and as she dives deeper into one she creates.
• PEN America Freedom to Read Director Kasey Meehan welcomed the Brevard County school board’s decision to retain “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut while highlighting concerns over the ongoing removal of “The Kite Runner” from shelves. PEN also shared the letter that Khaled Hosseini wrote to the school board, hoping his words resonate with the other books still under consideration.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) announced its collaboration with the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition opens to the public on April 20 and runs until November 24. 
• PEN America commended the passage of the PRESS Act (Protect Reporters from Excessive Suppression Act) in the U.S. House, emphasizing its importance in safeguarding press freedom by preventing the government from compelling journalists to disclose confidential sources.
• PEN America hosted Legendary artist Ai Weiwei at The Town Hall for PEN Out Loud, to celebrate his new book, Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir alongside Mira Jacob.
  

  Photos: Jasmina Tomic

• Digital Security experts Victorya Vilk and Jeje Mohamed wrote about the pervasive issue of online abuse faced by writers and journalists, especially women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color, emphasizing on its impact on their mental health, physical well-being, and professional careers.
• Digital Security experts Victorya Vilk and Jeje Mohamed also compiled a toolkit for Ms Magazine, as a response to the online harassment that writers and artists face in the digital world.
• PEN Los Angeles hosted its annual New Year New Books past week, at the Sean Kelly Gallery LA and were joined by our board members Marvin Putnam and Jamie Wolf.

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• PEN America convened a Free Speech Summit at Harvard University, where CEO Suzanne Nossel emphasized the need for universities, including Harvard, to address the crisis of young people feeling unable to express themselves, stating that Harvard could be a leader in upholding free speech values, while the panel discussed the challenges of navigating difficult conversations and the impact of cancel culture, to build intellectual vitality on campus.

• Dietlind Lerner, our Communications Consultant wrote about how she and her transgender daughter bonded over a drag queen reality show: How RuPaul Changed My Life. 
• Suzanne Trimel, Senior Communications and Media Advisor wrote about Bill O’Reilly’s switch to advocating against book bans after his book was banned in Florida, where over 1,600 books, were banned due to vague wording in the state’s law, HB 1069, with the organization actively suing Escambia County in federal court to contest the censorship, a case that has been allowed to proceed by a federal judge.
• Samantha LaFrance and Tasslyn Magnusson wrote about the twenty-five books that have been banned in Marietta, Georgia since September 2023 over the objections of parents in the district. 

• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) released the Russian translation of A Safety Guide for Artists. ARC has witnessed a momentous surge in applications for assistance from Russian and Belarusian artists. The intense and sustained repression against artists and cultural professionals expressing anti-war sentiments or who are considered dissidents of the Lukashenko and Putin regimes has resulted in urgent demand for a version of the Safety Guide that is accessible to Russian speakers.

• PEN America strongly condemned the persistent judicial harassment of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate and 2023 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write awardee Narges Mohammadi and demanded an immediate cessation of the punitive measures inflicted upon her as a result of her writing and activism conducted while in Evin prison.

•  PEN America’s ARC participated in the Censurados Film Festival in Peru by hosting a panel discussion titled “Cinematic Narratives in Conflict Contexts: Experiences from Mexico and Peru.” The discussion delved into the intersection between documentary production and conflicts in Mexico and Peru, where attacks on communities and territories through organized crime, extractivism, and governmental projects have given rise to powerful cinematic narratives that challenge hegemonic opinions and trends.

•  ARC published a blog post reflecting on ARC’s women’s workshop hosted in Bogota, Colombia in December.

• ARC published a thread on X responding to the distressing comments from a key drafter of Iran’s pending bill – the “Protection of Family Through Promotion of Hijab and Chastity Culture” which has led to rising tensions among Iranian artists.

•  ARC published a thread on X responding to the harsh sentencing of Myanmar’s award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist, Shin Daewe who was sentenced to life in prison under the country’s anti-terrorism law.

• PEN Out Loud kicks off the 2024 programming season featuring legendary artist Ai Weiwei in the only U.S. appearance for the launch of his first work of graphic nonfiction, Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir joined in conversation with novelist, memoirist, illustrator, and cultural critic, Mira Jacob.

• PEN America responded and supported an injunction by the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals against a Texas law (HB 900) mandating sexual content ratings for school books, emphasizing that blocking the flawed statute protects booksellers from intrusive rating systems, and expressing relief that the injunction safeguards the fundamental right to read for students in Texas, while also highlighting the absurdity and dangers of the proposed rating system.
• See previous PEN America updates

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• A federal judge in Florida allowed  PEN America’s first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit against book bans in Escambia County to proceed. Our lawsuit, filed with Penguin Random House, banned authors, and parents and students in the district, claims these bans violate the First Amendment and engage in unlawful viewpoint discrimination. We also published a list of more than 1,600 of Escambia County’s banned books, including the dictionary.
• PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel wrote for CNN that DEI and free speech can go hand in hand.
• Freedom to Learn Program Director Jeremy C. Young and Jeffrey Adam Sachs wrote about an emerging legislative agenda from supporters of educational censorship: going after the institutions and practices that make academic freedom possible.
• Florida Director Katie Blankenship and Young wrote about dangerous reform of higher education in Florida, where a new Florida regulation could prevent professors or students at the state’s universities from discussing women’s health, race and racism, environmentally sustainable practices, or even politics.
• Young wrote for the Hill that higher education needs to reform itself. It also needs to defend itself.
• Young also wrote with Jacqueline Allain in Governing, arguing that cuts to the arts and humanities are a free expression issue.
• Research Program Manager Ryan Howzell wrote about extremism as a topline concern for journalists ahead of the 2024 elections.
• Free Expression and Education Manager Kristen Shahverdian was interviewed about the free speech debate after the resignation of Harvard’s Claudine Gay.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) shared their vision for developing a culture of safety.
• PEN America called for the reinstatement of an Indiana University professor who was suspended after he reportedly failed to accurately fill out a form for a lecture involving an Israeli-American writer and activist, which the University subsequently denied. 
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) urgently called on the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University (IU) to reinstate the planned inaugural U.S. retrospective exhibition of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby, calling its cancellation “an alarming affront to free expression.”
• ARC called for charges to be dropped against Iranian musician Mehdi Yarrahi, who has been sentenced to two years imprisonment and seventy-four lashes for his song “Roosarito” (Your Head Scarf). 
• In this week’s PEN Ten, 2017 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award winner Hisham Matar talks about his third and latest novel about life in exile, My Friends, the figure of the writer, and the “emotional country” that friendship becomes when you cannot return home.

See previous PEN America updates

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• In response to news that Orange County, Florida, banned nearly 700 books including two by Ann Patchett,  the author warned in a video for PEN America, “be careful. Don’t read these books.”
• Omaid Sharifi, senior manager of Protection Programs for the Artists at Risk Connection, wrote for The Hill that Afghan artists have been categorically persecuted as the Taliban’s brutal oppression has relentlessly sought to eradicate creative expression. 
• Jonathan Friedman, director of Free Expression Programs, spoke to SRF television about the resignations of Harvard President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill after their appearance before congress.
• PEN America expressed profound concern about Le Huu Minh Tuan, an editor, and member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), whose health has sharply declined since his arrest in January 2021, and calls on the Vietnamese government to immediately release, drop all charges, and provide critical medical attention to Le Huu Minh Tuan. 
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) condemned the new conviction of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi for “propaganda against the system.” He was initially arrested in October 2022 for rap lyrics in support of Iran’s “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.
• Kristen Shahverdian, senior manager of free expression and education, said that a tenure review of former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus Joe Gow— fired last month from his chancellorship and placed on leave for pornographic videos he made with his wife— calls into question the university’s commitment to academic freedom. 
• BNN Breaking News cited Ryan Howzell, program manager for research, about the need for California to recognize that its policies may require modifications as they’re adapted outside the state, based on our report, The Florida and California Effects. Howzell wrote for the Sacramento Bee that some of California’s new laws are too open to interpretation from bad actors.
• See previous PEN America updates

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel wrote for Time magazine about the dangers of curtailing free speech on campuses to solve the issue of rising antisemitism. “Amid the clamor to address antisemitism, free speech protections must remain recognized as a shield to protect vulnerable minorities rather than a sword to wound them.”
• PEN America launched an expanded effort, with support from Scholastic, to assist authors whose books have been banned with information, resources, and strategies for digital safety.
• PEN America’s Florida Director, Katie Blankenship, submitted a comment to the Florida Board of Governors, expressing concerns and urging reconsideration of its policy to implement Senate Bill 266, which could have a chilling effect on speech in universities.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Program condemned the scrutiny of artists for expressing their views on the Israel-Hamas conflict. ARC advocates for protecting spaces where art can be freely displayed and discussed, even amid conflicts and allegations of offense.
• PEN America Eurasia Director of Free Speech Polina Sadovskaya wrote about the crackdown on free expression in Georgia, within the Ministry of Culture, and calls for EU support to invest in civil society for restoring free speech and human rights.
• PEN America condemned the Wisconsin Legislature’s tactics that led the University of Wisconsin regents to freeze all diversity, equity and inclusion staffing until 2026. Jeremy C. Young, Freedom to Learn program director at PEN America, said: “Legislators threatening and punishing regents, faculty, and staff to promote the legislature’s ideology serves only one purpose: to create a climate of fear at universities that results in the silencing of ideas on campus.”
• Author Lisa Fipps interviewed Grace Linn, a 101-year-old, who created a quilt displayed in protest against the Martin County School Board’s ban of 84 books, expressing her opposition to book bans. Watch the video produced by PEN America’s Damarcus Adisa.
• PEN America supported the 30 global art house film organizations, festivals, and filmmakers who have signed an open letter urging Iranian authorities to drop charges against directors Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who face a trial and travel ban. PEN America has been advocating for the freedom of expression for artists and writers globally, highlighting Iran’s position as one of the leading jailers of writers and female writers on PEN America’s 2022 Freedom to Write Index.
• PEN America put out a reading list featuring the publications of our members from the year 2023. Order here. 

• See previous PEN America updates

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• PEN America announced the election of a new president of the organization, Jennifer Finney Boylan, the celebrated breakthrough author and LGBTQ rights advocate. She succeeds Ayad Akhtar, who will remain on the Board of Directors as vice president.
• PEN America supported Iranian writer and activist Narges Mohammadi, who received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in absentia. PEN America’s CEO, Suzanne Nossel, and Karin Deutsch Karlekar, Director of Writers at Risk, attended the Nobel ceremony as guests of the family. Mohammadi, a 2023 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award honoree, serves as a reminder of ongoing human rights challenges, particularly in Iran, where numerous writers face unjust imprisonment.

• PEN America released a cumulative data summary, “Spineless Shelves,” documenting nearly 6,000 book bans in public schools from July 2021 to June 2023, revealing copycat bans and a “Scarlet Letter” effect, where authors faced increased scrutiny after bans. The report highlights the alarming rise of school book bans across 41 states, with Florida and Texas leading, and emphasizes the disproportionate impact on Black, LGBTQ+ authors and books about race. 
• PEN’s Annual General Meeting,  Conversation Amid Crisis: Sustaining Dialogue in Divided Times, featured a conversation with award-winning fiction and nonfiction writer Zaina Arafat; journalist and translator Yair Rosenberg; journalist, editor, and cultural critic Judith Shulevitz; writer and former Director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group Nathan Thrall; and author, lawyer, and equity advocate Kenji Yoshino. 

• PEN America filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court in the case of Moody v. NetChoice. LLC challenging Florida’s S.B. 7072– arguing that laws restricting content moderation online are unconstitutional.
• PEN America’s Kasey Meehan and Laura Schroeder participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by Rep. Ayanna Pressley focused on the wave of book banning happening across the country. They shared about PEN America’s work to document and push back against this educational censorship as well as the urgent need to defend the freedom to read.

• PEN America condemned the Russian government for putting Masha Gessen, author, journalist, PEN America member, and former Trustee, on a Most Wanted list, apparently as a reprisal against Gessen’s discussion of widely documented, unprovoked atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
• PEN America mourned the killing of renowned Palestinian scholar and writer Refaat Alareer. Alareer was killed on December 7, by an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. 
• PEN America’s Free Expression and Education Director Jonathan Friedman wrote about what the university presidents should have said to Congress regarding book bans and freedom of speech.
• Friedman responded to the resignation of Liz Magill as the president of the University of Pennsylvania, urging a commitment to balancing robust free speech protections with creating an inclusive environment without inviting external interference from politicians or donors.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) published a joint letter with 30 organizations in support of Cuban multimedia artist Tania Bruguera and the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism (INSTAR), which has experienced harassment from Cuban authorities. 
• ARC announced the 2023 fellowship cohort of the Center for Ethics and Writing, an initiative with Bard College. The fellowship is a non-residency program providing direct support for one year to five writers and artists whose free expression is threatened due to their socially engaged art.
• ARC hosted a Latin American regional workshop in Bogotá, Colombia, with 20 women and non-binary artists and activists from across Latin America to discuss present challenges to freedom of expression and create networks of empowerment and collaboration. 
• Free Speech and education experts Jeremy Young and Samantha LaFrance wrote about an Ohio bill forcing legislators’ own idea of neutrality onto state universities that would gut intellectual freedom in higher education.
• PEN America announced a series of Emerging Voices Workshops in Los Angeles, beginning in June 2024, supported by the Unlikely Collaborators Foundation, to provide in-person, multi-genre writing workshops for early-career writers traditionally underrepresented in the literary world, aiming to enhance their connections and tools for publication.
• PEN America said the comments from Florida Education Commissioner Manny Díaz Jr. posted on X, that sociology “has been hijacked by left-wing activists” demonstrate that Florida has enacted an ideologically motivated ban on sociology in general education, undermining both academic freedom and student learning on campus.

• See previous PEN America updates

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• Amid a crisis of polarization and fragmentation in discourse in the United States over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, PEN America will use its annual general meeting on Monday, Dec. 11 for a conversation examining the challenge of keeping civil and open dialogue alive. The in-person event will take place from 7-9 p.m. at Scholastic headquarters in Manhattan. There will be a live stream. Register here.
• PEN America announced a grant to fund its groundbreaking DREAMing Out Loud writing workshops and annual published anthology for young aspiring migrant writers in New York City. Roxanne Coady/R J Julia Booksellers, the Karen Pritzker/Seedlings Foundation, and Atlas Books have teamed up to provide $275,000 to support the program over the next five years. Apply here. 
• In response to a Congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses, PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel emphasized the importance of free speech protections, even for deeply hateful speech like calls for genocide. Nossel called on private universities to align their free speech standards with the First Amendment, urging fair and transparent enforcement of policies against threats and discrimination.
• Jonathan Friedman, Director of the Free Expression and Education program, wrote about the alarming suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters at three private universities (Brandeis, Columbia, and George Washington) for promoting antisemitism, engaging in threats, and violating campus policies. The article highlights concerns about censorship, unclear policy enforcement, and the negative impact on free expression on campuses.
• In response to Governor Ron DeSantis denying book bans in Florida, free speech experts at PEN America countered with evidence of 1,406 bans, including 300 acknowledged by the state.
• PEN America filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court that argues that Florida and Texas laws restricting social media content moderation violate the First Amendment by imposing ideological orthodoxy on public discourse. PEN America emphasizes that upholding these laws could lead to broader attempts to restrict free speech.
• PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) expressed concern over the summons of writer and art critic Raymar Aguado Hernández by the Cuban National Revolutionary Police. Following the summons, Aguado Hernández reported a patrol car stationed outside his home, serving as a form of surveillance and impeding his freedom of movement. 

• ARC co-sponsored a film screening of A Revolution on Canvas. Hybrid thriller and documentary, the film blurs the lines between the personal and political by diving into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of more than 100 “treasonous” paintings by Iranian artist Nickzad “Nicky” Nodjoumi – one of Iran’s most revolutionary artists. The film was followed by a Q&A with directors Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder. 
• PEN America expressed concern over two instructors at the University of Arizona who were reinstated after suspension over their remarks about Hamas. Kristen Shahverdian, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America said they cannot continue teaching a course, calling it “a fundamental violation of academic freedom” and that their freedom of speech should be ensured for a longer term. 
• In response to Kash Patel’s threats of retaliation against the media in a potential second Trump administration, Shannon Jankowski, interim Sy Syms director for U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America, condemned the actions as a threat to the First Amendment and the free press. 
• PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Program hosted Break Out, an annual community-centered staging of literary works by incarcerated writers. The selection of readings from the anthology was performed by a dynamic cadre of presenters. Besides Coleman and Ryan, there were poet/professor Suzanne Gardinier, poet/advocate José A. Pérez, and writer/activist Mario Finesse Wright. 

• ARC published an artist profile on Iranian artist Faezeh Zandieh. After relocating to France, Zandieh flourished as she began to uncensor herself and subsequently her artwork. 
• ARC expressed alarm that Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi had been rearrested less than two weeks after his release on bail. 
• Alongside the devastating human toll, PEN America expressed deep concern about the destruction of educational and cultural sites in Gaza, including museums, libraries, churches, mosques, cultural centers, and schools, as a result of the Israeli bombardment during the Israel/Hamas war.
• PEN America joined with members of Congress Maxwell Frost (FL-10), Jamie Raskin (MD-8), and Frederica Wilson (FL-24) for a press conference to mark the introduction of the Fight Book Bans Act. Laura Schroeder, Congressional affairs lead for PEN America, said: “Banning books in schools is not only unpopular; it’s expensive. As school districts around the country divert resources to address widespread efforts to curtail students’ freedom to read, it is once again the students who suffer the most.
• In this week’s PEN Ten interview, Zahra Hankir speaks to PEN America’s World Voices Festival and Literary Programs Coordinator Sarah Dillard about Eyeliner: A Cultural History.
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