In our new report, Reading Between the Bars: An In-Depth Look at Prison Censorship, 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.
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.
School Book Bans Threaten ‘Traditions of Freedom and Democracy’
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.”
This week’s Member Spotlight features lemon 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.
On October 13, PEN America presented an event 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.
In Solitary Confinement, Banned Books Are a Lifeline
“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 Barsreport.
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)
Kristen Shahverdian spoke about how campuses should respond to campus protests to ensure free speech is upheld over Israel and Gaza. (Voice of America)
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)
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)
PEN America organized a panel 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)
WHAT WE'RE READING
Our quarterly Artists at Risk Connection newsletter highlights the 10 Cuban migrant artists awarded fellowships (ARC)
"It has even, on one occasion, broke me down to tears. … Books are my escape, and I’m constantly denied even that."
- Martin Lizarragar on his experience with censorship while incarcerated in California, in the PEN America report Reading Between the Bars
TRENDING @ PENAMERICA
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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