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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In Response to Reported Disruption of Yale Law School Civil Liberties Forum, PEN America Says Dissent Should not Cross a Line to Censor Speakers
Cases like these implicate speech rights on the part of invited guests as well as the rights of protesting students. Both are entitled an opportunity to get their ideas… More
PEN America Reacts with Alarm to News of Intimidation of Chinese Dissidents in U.S.
Human rights groups and expert commentators have increasingly warned that authoritarian governments, with China as a prominent example, have increasingly rolled out new and expanded tactics of trans-national repression.… More
PEN America: All Efforts Must be Made to Protect Journalists Covering the War in Ukraine
These courageous reporters are putting their lives on the line to tell the world the horrific truth of this war. The risks of war reporting are always high,… More
Online Conversation March 16 on Access to Books in Prisons and the Use of E-Readers
With 2 million people in prisons and jails across the country, restricting reading could have profound ramifications for the men and women cycled through the criminal legal system and… More
Florida Bill Would Let Parents and Citizens Challenge Any Book Used in Schools
"HB 1467 has been touted as a measure to increase school transparency," said Jonathan Friedman, director of PEN America's Free Expression and Education program, "but the real aim is… More
Acclaimed Author Zadie Smith Will Receive the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award May 23
Smith’s fiction meticulously charts characters’ social surroundings and entangled if disparate existences, offering deep insight into their circumstances. She questions and pushes against imposed boundaries of race and class,… More
2021 Freedom to Write Honoree Keyvan Bajan Is Released from Prison in Iran After Nearly One And a Half Years
Iran is among the world’s most restrictive countries for freedom of expression. In 2020, PEN America found that Iran imprisoned the fourth-highest number of writers and public intellectuals in… More
Mississippi Principal Fired for Reading a Book to Second Graders Should be Reinstated
The letter to the Hinds County School District said the firing of Assistant Principal Toby Price from Gary Road Elementary School on March 4 was “an extreme disciplinary action,… More
Journalists and Members of Congress Join 3/14 Conversation About Saving Local News
Nadine Farid Johnson, PEN America’s Washington director, said: “The importance of local journalism cannot be overstated. Local news outlets have historically functioned as vital governmental watchdogs. They hold elected… More
‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Inserts “Heavy Hand” of Lawmakers Into Classroom Lessons
PEN America issued the following statement upon passage of Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' bill, from CEO Suzanne Nossel: "Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill amounts to a government diktat policing the… More