Amid shock and grief, we must defend journalists, writers, and thinkers caught in the crossfire.

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Oct 18, 2023
The unfolding events in Israel and in Gaza have made this an excruciating time for so many of us. Amid the shock, horror, hurt, anger, dread, and other emotions coursing through our community, we have redoubled our commitment to the protection of writers, journalists, thinkers, and artists caught in the crossfire, and to the rights of everyone at home to voice competing viewpoints. Our expertise on free speech on the college campus has come into focus as universities are roiled in controversy. Working with university presidents, faculty, and students, we reassert our dedication to ensuring that the college campus is truly open to all people and all ideas.
PEN DEFENDS


** Universities Must Commit to an Open Exchange of Ideas
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With campus controversies and protests occurring amid the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza, this week we issued guidance drawing on our years of focus on campus free speech and denounced efforts to silence or punish students for speaking out. “It is the duty of higher education to foster an environment where open discourse and disagreement across the ideological spectrum can occur.”

See our guidance >> ([link removed])

Read the Campus Free Speech Guide >> ([link removed])


** Denouncing Atrocities of War
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We deplore the premeditated and vicious attack launched against Israeli civilians, resulting in hundreds of deaths, countless wounded and scores kidnapped, held hostage, and unaccounted for. We also mourn the devastating loss of civilian lives in Gaza and condemn threats to free expression and the free flow of vital information to the public arising out of the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas. Political conflicts, even when they involve grave denials of human rights, can never justify nor be resolved through attacks on innocent civilians. We call on all parties to uphold the sanctity of human life and to safeguard civilians and human rights.

Our latest statement >> ([link removed])

A journalist's guide to fighting disinformation >> ([link removed])


** How George M. Johnson’s Family Stopped a Book Ban
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Recently, we spoke to George M. Johnson’s mother and aunts about their wildly successful challenge of a ban of All Boys Aren’t Blue near their home in New Jersey. “I didn’t know what to expect,” Kaye Johnson said. “So now you’re looking around and you’re wondering, how far are we gonna go with this? Are we gonna get physically attacked? So then you just go on the defense, and you say, God cover us, and move forward.”

Watch their story >> ([link removed])
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

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This week’s Member Spotlight features Fireworks Every Night ([link removed]) by PEN America Member Beth Raymer. A young woman trapped in a deeply dysfunctional family in the seedy wilds of 1990s South Florida has to make a choice—save her family, or save herself—in this larger-than-life debut novel from the acclaimed author of Lay the Favorite.

Check out Fireworks Every Night >> ([link removed])

View 2023 publications by PEN America Members here >> ([link removed])


















VIRTUAL EVENTS
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Wednesday, October 25, 2023 | 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm ET

Join us in celebrating the 2023 Emerging Voices Fellows who will read together as the culmination of their fellowship.
Learn More ([link removed]*t98ihm*_ga*ODQzMzAyNDM2LjE2Nzk5NDM1NjY.*_ga_0RQGYGDH22*MTY5NzU1MjY3Ny4zMzkuMS4xNjk3NTY5ODA4LjMxLjAuMA.&utm_source=Communications&utm_campaign=4ed625b5dc-EMAIL_PENNews_2023_10_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-e98639ab83-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=4ed625b5dc&mc_eid=UNIQID.)
PEN READS


** Falling for Book Season
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Forget about sweater weather and pumpkin spice. For us, fall is all about curling up with a great book. Among the events kicking off the season were Justin Torres in conversation with Angela Flournoy about his National Book Award short-listed novel, Blackouts. A.M. Homes and Ayad Akhtar spoke about placing politics under the microscope, in conversation with Sarah Thankam Mathews. And in collaboration with the Dart Center, we hosted a conversation with Nobel Peace Prize-winner and Maria Ressa and investigative journalist Patricia Evangelista about Evangelista’s new book Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country.

Find your next event >> ([link removed])


** Celebrating Emerging Voices
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Before becoming an Emerging Voices fellow Nathan Go shied away from writing narratives that leaned into his identity and his own experience as a Filipino immigrant. This has changed, though, and Go, a member of the 2012 Emerging Voices cohort, recently published his debut novel, Forgiving Imelda Marcos. Go discussed the book and his experience as a fellow in an interview with PEN America.
Read the Interview >> ([link removed])

Save the date for our Emerging Voices Fellows’ final reading >> ([link removed])
PEN SPEAKS
* Karin Karlekar wrote about the electrifying moment when Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize and what the honor would mean for her freedom and the broader movement for women’s and human rights in Iran. (M ([link removed]) s. Magazine ([link removed]) )

* Karlekar also wrote that India's case against Arundhati Roy is a big red flag for free speech (MSNBC ([link removed]) )

* In a column by Will Bunch, our Jonathan Friedman spoke about the need for universities to commit to an open exchange of controversial and often differing views on topics like current events or world history. “Right now is not the time for universities to back away from their core commitment." (Philadelphia Inquirer ([link removed]) )

* PEN America called on Scholastic to resist being an accessory to government censorship. (School Library Journal ([link removed]) )

WHAT WE'RE READING
* Salman Rushdie has a memoir coming out about the horrifying attack that left him blind in his right eye and with a damaged left hand. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder will be published April 16. (AP ([link removed]) )

* An open letter from participants in the Palestine Festival of Literature, including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Molly Crabapple, Natalie Diaz, Maaza Mengiste, and Solmas Sharif, calls on the international community “to commit to ending the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza and to finally pursuing a comprehensive and just political solution in Palestine.” (The New York Review of Books ([link removed]) )

* What Hamas Wants (The Atlantic ([link removed]) )

* A brief history of banned books in America. (Smithsonian Magazine ([link removed]) )

* Diversity statements are being banned. Here's what might replace them. (The Chronicle of Higher Education ([link removed]) )


** "Now that we are truly as a family in this fight, we will not only continue to fight for George, but we continue to fight for all the other voices that are out there that people are trying to suppress."
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** - George M. Johnson's aunt, Stephanie Elder-Law, on the family's successful fight against a ban of All Boys Aren't Blue
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TRENDING @ PENAMERICA

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Books Change Lives

For Banned Books Week, we were joined in the fight by Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Mandy Patinkin and Kathyrn Grody, Edie Falco, Neil Gaiman, Andrea Martin, B.D. Wong, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Kate Miller, Wendie Malick, Lewis Black, Matthew Del Negro, and hundreds of people on Instagram who shared videos about life-changing books.

Check it out >> ([link removed])
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PEN America- Washington, DC:
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PEN America- Los Angeles:
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