Art Spiegelman was shocked last year to learn that Maus, his memoir about the Holocaust, was banned in Tennessee over concerns it contained “sexually explicit” material. Now it’s under review in a school district in Missouri for the same reason. In an interview with PEN America, Spiegelman talked about the rise of fascism and the need to push back on censorship.
PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman responds to the semantic gamesmanship of those who deny that restricting access to books like Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem, The Hill We Climb, is anything other than a ban. “The point is not whether one can get a book that’s been prohibited in a school; it’s about whether someone’s ready access to ideas has been denied or diminished in a public institution and why,” he wrote.
Ta-Nehisi Coates Memoir Banned for Making White Kids ‘Ashamed’
An AP language student in South Carolina, assigned to read Ta-Nehisi Coates, instead wrote to the school board that the class made them feel “ashamed to be Caucasian." The school board banned the book. PEN America's Jeremy C. Young called the removal of the book "an outrageous act of government censorship."
HOW TO BE AN ALLY WHEN YOU WITNESS ONLINE ABUSE
Monday, July 10, 2023 | 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET
Virtual Event
In this free, one-hour, interactive training, we’ll give you the tools you need to intervene safely and effectively in online abuse using Right To Be’s 5Ds of bystander intervention.
For the 27th year, we are welcoming 12 fellows in our nonpareil Emerging Voices program. They are authors from varied backgrounds and experiences elected from the largest applicant pool in the program’s history. Each fellow has been paired with a mentor to work closely on their craft. Over the five-month-long immersive, virtual program, fellows have access to creative writing workshops, publishing professionals, and business workshops.
The Questionable Ones by Judith Keller, translated from German by PEN America member Tess Lewis, offers familiar yet absurd portraits of passers-by, fellow passengers on the tram, the unemployed and the overemployed, the innocent and the suspicious, young mothers and confused elderly. With quirky humor and wry insight, these micro-fictions unravel the fabric of daily life.
Amanda Gorman spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the restriction of her book in Florida and the campaign through PEN America to send letters to the school that restricted The Hill We Climb.
Moira Marquis of our Prison and Justice Writing Program launched an email campaign to stop a proposed New York State policy that would have prevented incarcerated writers and artists from receiving contest awards. Within 24 hours, the directive was halted. She also wrote for LitHub about how to encourage free expression behind bars.
PEN America’s Nadine Farid Johnson delivered the keynote address at the 2023 Biblioteksdagarna, a signature cultural summit held in Linköping, Sweden, highlighting the rise of book bans across the United States and the repercussions of educational censorship for democracies around the globe.
We mourned the loss of esteemed author Cormac McCarthy, who in 2009 was honored with the PEN/Saul Bellow award for a career ‘in the highest rank of American literature.’
WHAT WE'RE READING
Midlands teacher’s lesson on racism halted after complaints, citing state law (The State)
Hong Kong protest anthem tops iTunes chart after government seeks court ban (Financial Times)
Biden administration to appoint anti-book ban coordinator as part of new LGBTQ+ protections (CBS News)
“We haven’t learned much from the past, but there's some things you should be able to figure out. Book burning leads to people burning.”
- Art Spiegelman
TRENDING @ PENAMERICA
Students Stage Public Reading of Amanda Gorman Poem
The book-loving community rallied around Amanda Gorman and other authors restricted in Miami Lakes, Florida, with a giveaway of 1,200 of the restricted books. One commenter said, “I’m not crying. Okay, yes I’m crying. Thank You Thank YOU for all the good people of Florida who came together for this wonderful event. We can’t let hate or ignorance win!” See the post >>
