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].
At a time of unprecedented attacks against the free press, PEN America Members are taking action. Join us today.
Program to celebrate First Amendment champions
Eight individuals who have taken risky, at times harrowing stands on behalf of the First Amendment in recent months will discuss their experiences at an upcoming program on September… More
PEN Welcomes Release of Ramin Jahanbegloo in Iran
PEN American Center welcomed today’s release of Ramin Jahanbegloo, an Iranian writer and intellectual who was arrested at Tehran airport on April 27, 2006, as he was about to… More
Akbar Ganji on Writing and Freedom of Expression in Iran
PEN welcomed Akbar Ganji, one of Iran's most prominent champions of human rights and freedom of expression, to New York City today to discuss writing, free expression, and recent… More
PEN Praises Ruling in Lawsuit Challenging Visa Denials
PEN American Center today hailed a court ruling challenging the U.S. government’s refusal to issue a visa to a prominent Muslim scholar, calling the court’s order to process Professor… More
PEN Welcomes Release of Algerian Newspaper Publisher, Mohammed Benchicou
PEN American Center welcomed today’s release of Mohammed Benchicou, a newspaper publisher whose paper’s independent reporting earned him a two-year prison term in Algeria. Benchicou, who received one of… More
PEN Congress reasserts the role of literature in a world without peace
Horst Köhler, Federal President of Germany, welcomed more than 450 writers from PEN Centres around the world to Berlin at the opening ceremony of International PEN’s annual Congress. President… More
Turkmen Writer Defeats Travel Ban, Arrives in United States to Receive PEN Prize
Capping a week of high diplomatic drama, prominent Turkmen novelist and dissident Rakhim Esenov boarded a plane last night in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan to travel to the United States, where… More
Turkmen Authorities Threatening to Prevent Writer from Accepting PEN Prize
PEN American Center is protesting an attempt by the government of Turkeminstan to prevent prominent novelist and dissident Rakhim Esenov from traveling to New York to receive a 2006… More
PEN expresses alarm over detention of Gambian independent paper editor & manager
Your Excellency, On behalf of the 3,100 members of PEN American Center, an international organization of writers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression wherever it is threatened, we are… More
Andrej Dynko released on expiry of sentence; prison diary published
Writer and journalist Andrej Dynko, arrested with hundreds of other protestors in the days surrounding the March 19th presidential elections, was freed today after serving a 10-day sentence. He… More
Support for the freedom to read with exclusive designs by Todd Parr, Mike Curato, Art Spiegelman, and more!
