Our latest report exposes staggering rates of censorship in prisons.

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Nov 1, 2023
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** Reading Between the Bars
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In our new report, Reading Between the Bars: An In-Depth Look at Prison Censorship ([link removed]) , we found that prisons are the largest censors in the United States. Content-neutral banning—​​censoring a piece of literature for reasons unrelated to its contents—is a unique tactic of prison censorship. In addition to the shockingly high numbers of banned titles – Florida’s list alone contains more than 22,000 – we documented a steep rise in prisons prohibiting free, used, and gifted books to incarcerated people.

Read more from Moira Marquis in TIME magazine >> ([link removed])

Read the report >> ([link removed])

Tell officials to oppose prison censorship >> ([link removed])
PEN DEFENDS


** Protecting Expression in a Time of War
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The controversies raging amid war in Israel and Gaza are putting free expression principles to the test. As part of our mission at PEN America to unite writers and their allies, to celebrate creative expression, and defend the liberties that make it possible, we are committed to defending free discourse on college campuses and sharing and amplifying the work of writers and artists affected by war.

Israeli and Palestinian Writers and Artists: The Toll of War ([link removed]) >> ([link removed])

More statements and resources >> ([link removed])


** School Book Bans Threaten ‘Traditions of Freedom and Democracy’
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Jonathan Friedman testified about book bans before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, saying students deserve to be able to read educational resources and works of literature that “reflect their identities and the complexities of their lives.” He described what’s at stake in today’s movement to ban books as “whether we can live in a diverse society that upholds our traditions of freedom and democracy for us all. Or whether we want to allow a vocal minority with a discriminatory intent to narrow our students’ educational horizons.”

See the testimony >> ([link removed])
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

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This week’s Member Spotlight features lemon ([link removed]) by PEN America Member Isabella Mansfield. An exploration of body and health, the poems in this chapbook come from learning to navigate life with a disability, anxiety and depression, bodily changes, illness and associated medical trauma, and the intersection of physical and mental health.

Check out lemon >> ([link removed])

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









PEN READS


** The PEN Ten: On Oral Folklore and Storytelling
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On October 13, PEN America presented an event ([link removed]) featuring Safiya Sinclair on how she found her voice in poetry. In this PEN Ten, Sinclair shares how her family history shaped her storytelling and poetic style. Since the age of ten, she has been writing poems, which became a roadmap she revisited while writing her memoir How to Say Babylon. Oral folklore and her mother’s stories are a vital part of her Jamaican culture that she details in her memoir.

Read the interview >> ([link removed])


** In Solitary Confinement, Banned Books Are a Lifeline
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“Surviving my seventh sweltering summer in a Texas solitary confinement women’s prison is easier when I’m escaping in a good book.” So begins an essay by Kwaneta Harris, a mother and former nurse incarcerated in solitary confinement in Texas, who writes about the difficulty of reading behind bars in an essay accompanying our Reading Between the Bars ([link removed]) report.

Read more in the Boston Globe magazine >> ([link removed])
FRIENDS OF PEN
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PEN SPEAKS
* Bestselling authors Michael Connelly and David Baldacci talked to MSNBC's Ali Velshi about PEN America’s drive to fight book bans in Florida and across the country. “What you guys are involved in is one of the largest shows of force we’ve seen against book banning.” (Ali Velshi ([link removed]) )

* Kristen Shahverdian spoke about how campuses should respond to campus protests to ensure free speech is upheld over Israel and Gaza. (Voice of America ([link removed]) )

* Jonathan Friedman was quoted widely about Scholastic’s decision to reverse its policy to segregate books focused on race and LGBTQ+ themes into an optional collection. (The Washington Post ([link removed]) )

* Our book ban research was cited in a piece by Jim Gray and David Grann about how Killers of the Flower Moon is being erased from Oklahoma history. (The New York Times ([link removed]) )

* PEN America organized a panel ([link removed]) moderated by Gary Shteyngart and featuring U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation Mariana Katzarova, co-chair of HRC Memorial Sergei Davidis, and exiled Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko. (Watch on YouTube ([link removed]) )

WHAT WE'RE READING
* Our quarterly Artists at Risk Connection newsletter highlights the 10 Cuban migrant artists awarded fellowships (ARC ([link removed]) )

* Mapping the Massacres (Oct7Map ([link removed]) )

* The Palestine Double Standard (The New York Times ([link removed]) )

* Parents, Politicians Don't Decide College Curriculums. Trust Universities to Do Their Jobs (AOL ([link removed]) )

* An Indian Artist Questions Borders and the Limits on Free Speech (The New York Times ([link removed]) )

* On the Ending of a Literary Journal (Lithub ([link removed]) )


** "It has even, on one occasion, broke me down to tears. … Books are my escape, and I’m constantly denied even that."
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** - Martin Lizarragar on his experience with censorship while incarcerated in California, in the PEN America report Reading Between the Bars
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TRENDING @ PENAMERICA

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Banned in Iowa

How Orwellian. The Des Moines Register sent Freedom of Information Act requests to all school districts in the state to find out what had been banned in the state. The list includes 1984 and Animal Farm.

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PEN America- New York:
588 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
PEN America- Washington, DC:
1100 13th Street, NW, Washington, DC xxxxxx
PEN America- Los Angeles:
1370 N. Saint Andrews Place, Los Angeles, CA 90028

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