(NEW YORK)— PEN America today announced the election of critically acclaimed novelist Dinaw Mengestu to the presidency of the 103-year-old writers organization whose mission is to celebrate literature and defend freedom of expression.
Mengestu assumes the presidency and becomes the chair of the PEN America Board of Trustees for a two-year term, following his election by the organization’s membership at its annual general meeting on Wednesday evening.
In addition to writing four novels and numerous journalistic articles, Mengestu directs both the Center for Ethics and Writing and the Written Arts Program at Bard College. A PEN America trustee since 2016, he succeeds Jennifer Finney Boylan, the trailblazing trans author and LGBTQ+ activist whose 18 books include novels, thrillers, memoirs, and a YA adventure series.
“Dinaw Mengestu has spent his career illuminating the borders between countries, histories, and identities, and bringing readers into the lives of those too often pushed to the margins,” said Summer Lopez, PEN America’s interim co-CEO and chief of Free Expression programs. “As he steps into the role of PEN America president, his unwavering commitment to free expression, his advocacy for writers under threat around the world, and his profound belief in literature’s power to humanize across deep divides will guide the organization through this pivotal moment for democracy and the written word.”
Mengestu’s first three novels – The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007), How to Read the Air (2010), All Our Names (2014), all New York Times Notable Books – explore the psychic toll and complexities of immigration from his native Ethiopia to the United States. His most recent novel, Someone Like Us (2024), shifts to the U.S.-born second generation, examining how displacement shapes their identity and a sense of belonging; it was named one of former President Obama’s ten best books of 2024.
Mengestu has won the prestigious 2012 MacArthur Genius Grant and the National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award. He has reported on conflicts in Darfur, Uganda, and eastern Congo in articles for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, and Rolling Stone.
He steps into the leadership role at a time when PEN America has intensified its fight against censorship by tracking and condemning sweeping public school book bans and highlighting their impact on titles about race, LGBTQ+ lives, and contested histories. The organization has warned that local and state efforts to purge library and classroom shelves amount to ideological control over what students can learn. It has sued school boards and others to stop censorship, from Texas and Iowa to Maryland and Tennessee, urging judges and the Supreme Court to strike down book bans and “banned concepts” laws as violations of core First Amendment principles.
PEN America has spoken out forcefully against the Trump administration’s assaults on the freedom of the press, its attempts to undermine free speech, and its attacks on independent voices across culture, academia, and the media. The organization has also spoken out against cultural destruction in Gaza and has denounced the targeting of writers and artists in countries including Iran, Vietnam and Egypt, and condemned the censorship carried out by authoritarian regimes.
Speaking about his vision for PEN America amid escalating political pressures surrounding free expression, Mengestu said:
“My driving ambition at PEN America has been to spread and promote the joy of literature—to make reading and the conversations and ideas that reading inspires accessible to more people with greater recognition of the incredible value that books add to our lives.
“My hope is to support PEN America in its work celebrating the unique power of literature. To make reading, and the conversations and ideas that reading inspires accessible is an integral part of our defense and advocacy for the free expression rights that make literature not only possible, but necessary.
“Across the globe, we live in a moment that demands fierce advocacy for free expression and the freedoms to read, write, and speak. Political and cultural forces are trying to define our societies in very singular and restrictive terms. If we do not make room for the plurality and range of voices embodied in our literature, we endanger not only our culture, but our democracy.”
Stressing the need for PEN America to be a loud and visible advocate for writers, Mengestu pointed to one of PEN America’s signature events – the annual World Voices Festival that was founded after 9/11 to counter censorship, authoritarianism, and isolationism while fostering dialogue between American readers and voices from around the world.
“The Festival not only serves as a kind of antidote to the current moment, but also to remind us what really matters most in the long run – that we are as a global literary community for the long run, and that this particular moment, as difficult as it might be, isn’t the end, doesn’t define us.”
In addition to Boylan, recent PEN America presidents have included authors Ayad Akhtar, Jennifer Egan, and Salman Rushdie.
Boylan praised her successor: “PEN America is in magnificent hands with Dinaw. He will continue the work of fighting for the rights of authors and readers; defying the oppressors of journalists around the world and in America; and celebrating the power of storytelling with our members here and in all our sister chapters in the global PEN network.”
Mengestu came to the United States at age two after his family fled political upheaval in 1977-78 in Ethiopia known as the “Red Terror.” They settled first in Peoria, IL and later in the Chicago area.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], 201-247-5057