Press Releases
PEN America experts are available for interviews with the press. Please direct inquiries to Suzanne Trimel, Senior Advisor, Communications and Media, at [email protected].
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PEN American Center Report Shows Impact of NSA Surveillance on American Writers
As reported in the New York Times today, PEN American Center released a first-of-its-kind report, Chilling Effects: NSA Surveillance Drives U.S. Writers to Self-Censor. More
Book Groups Endorse Freedom Act to Restore Privacy
The Campaign for Reader Privacy, which represents booksellers, librarians, publishers, and authors, today urged Congress to pass the USA Freedom Act to restore privacy protections that were eliminated by… More
On Third Attempt, PEN Member Ilija Trojanow Permitted into U.S.
PEN American Center learned today that Bulgarian-German writer and PEN member Ilija Trojanow has arrived safely in New York on a U.S. Visa to speak at the Goethe Institut’s… More
PEN Sierra Leone Expresses Grave Concern Over Arrests of Journalists
The Managing Editor of The Independent Observer Newspaper, Jonathan Leigh, and the Editor, Bai Bai Sesay, were rejected bail on Wednesday October, 29 2013 when they made their second… More
Qatar Authorities Thwart PEN Prison Visit with al-Ajami
PEN representatives were denied access to jailed poet Mohammed al-Ajami this week after Qatar’s highest court upheld the poet’s 15-year sentence on Monday. Al-Ajami remains in solitary confinement two… More
Larry Kramer honored by PEN, HBO at Literary Awards Ceremony
For the writers of PEN, the defense of free expression and human rights is not a task but an inspiration. It's no coincidence that many of the writers whose… More
PEN American Center Protests Fifteen-Year Prison Sentence for Qatari Poet
Al Ajami was arrested in 2011 on charges of “inciting the overthrow of the ruling system” and insulting the emir after a video of him reading an original poem… More
PEN Joins All-Star Coalition to Protect Digital Freedoms
PEN American Center today announced that it has joined Facebook, Google, Human Rights Watch, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University as the newest member… More
PEN Protests Exclusion of Bulgarian-German Writer from U.S.
PEN said the exclusion of German PEN Member Ilija Trojanov calls to mind our country’s checkered history of barring writers whose political views it disfavors, at a time when… More
PEN Award Winner Nasrin Sotoudeh Freed
PEN American Center today welcomed the release of Iranian journalist and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, calling it “a victory for all men and women fighting for justice for their fellow… More
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