The Utah state Board of Education released a list of 13 books it has banned from all public schools in the state in compliance with a new law, HB 29. Among them are works by Sarah J. Maas,Judy Bloom, and Margaret Atwood. Sign the petition to amend the law from Let Utah Read, a coalition of Utah community members, educators, parents, librarians, and advocacy organizations, including PEN America.Â
Celebrating the long-awaited release of Evan Gershkovich
PEN America celebrated the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Washington Post columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty editor Alsu Kurmasheva, and artist Sasha Skochilenko, among others, from Russian prisons. PEN America also continues to call for the freedom of all writers and artists unjustly imprisoned in Russia.
Urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to Protect Public Education
More than 500 authors, parents, and advocates signed a letter that urged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to uphold students’ freedoms to read and learn by reversing education censorship and book ban efforts. “Governor DeSantis, you have led us into this dark night of censorship,” it states. “But you can also lead us out.” All attendees of PEN America's recent Unified Voices Summit in Orlando were invited to sign the letter as a call to action.Â
The Free Narges Coalition steering committee, composed of PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, and Front Line Defenders, expressed deep concern over the declining health of 2023 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi, who has been detained in Iran’s Evin prison since November 2021. The committee called for the immediate release of and medical care for Mohammadi.
This week’s Member Spotlight features Roxy and Coco by PEN America Member Terese Svoboda. Sisters Roxy and Coco are two glamorous harpies—mythical bird women—attempting to outrun extinction and fix the planet by preventing child abuse, one child at a time. When Roxy is suddenly attracted to her human supervisor at a social work agency a hundred years too early, Coco is very suspicious. When the sisters find themselves trapped, Chris, a bipolar skateboarding truant, tries his best to rescue them but it's Stewie, Coco's colleague, who turns the story inside out. Roxy and Coco climaxes at a gala of egg fanciers who scramble to escape the harpies' talons. Action figure-worthy, for readers of Neil Gaiman and Karen Russell, this modern take on these fabled women touches on mental illness, racism, animal rights, and the rights of children.
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET
Online
Abusive trolls are joining forces to disproportionately target writers and journalists —especially those who identify as women, LGBTQ+, or POC—to intimidate, discredit, and silence. Each and every one of us can be an ally. Join this interactive training, where we’ll give you the tools you need to intervene safely and effectively when you witness online abuse using Right To Be’s 5 D’s of Bystander Intervention.
Thursday, August 15, 2024Â
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm ET
Online
What’s involved in fact-checking? How can we recognize when something we’re reading has been adequately verified? With so much questionable information circulating, understanding how fact-checking works can help us better determine when news and information is reliable and trustworthy – or not. In this webinar, we'll go over the main types of fact-checking and what’s involved, followed by a conversation about the methods used to verify information and how fact-checking helps tell stories and inform audiences.
In the most recent PEN Ten interview, PEN America Senior Accountant Andre Booker speaks with author Samuel Kolawole about his debut novel, The Road to the Salt Sea (Amistad, 2024). The Road to the Salt Sea tells the gut-wrenching story of Able God, who flees his low-wage job at a Nigerian hotel and escapes into the desert. In the interview, Booker asks Kolawole about his inspiration for the novel and his strongest literary influences.Â
Facts Forward Q&A:Â Learning to Combat Disinformation
In the fourth and most recent installment of the Facts Forward Q&A series, U.S. Free Expressions Programs manager Henry Hicks IV speaks with Joseph Darius Jaafari and Jake Hylton, the founders of LOOKOUT, a news outlet that covers LGBTQ+ stories and aims to build community. In each installment of the series, PEN America experts speak with journalists or researchers about disinformation and tips for slowing its spread.Â
TO BE DESTROYED, directed by Arthur Bradford, follows author Dave Eggers as he meets with students and teachers in the Rapid City, SD school district where his novel, The Circle, was pulled from shelves along with works by Alison Bechdel, Stephen Chbosky, Bernardine Evaristo and Imbolo Mbue. Through footage of heated school board meetings, community rallies and interviews with locals, we learn how these books were designated “to be destroyed.” This film premieres August 11th at 9PM ET on MSNBC.
PEN SPEAKS
In a new op-ed for Inside Higher Ed, Freedom to Learn program director Jeremy Young writes about the devastating closure of Utah Tech’s Center for Inclusion and Belonging. (Inside Higher Ed)
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Jonathan Friedman, the managing director of the U.S. Free Expression Programs, talks to the New York Times about the new book bans in Utah. (New York Times)
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The Orlando Sentinel delves into the letter urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to reverse his censorship efforts. (Orlando Sentinel)
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NBC covers felony charges pursued against librarians in the Granbury Independent School District in Texas for two years. (NBC)
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A federal judge in Florida issued a permanent injunction in Honeyfund v. DeSantis against the section of the Stop WOKE Act that bans diversity training in private workplaces. PEN America filed an amicus brief in the case in February 2023. (Law and Crime)
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Nashville city officials are exploring how they can confront white supremacists groups without violating free speech protections. (New York Times)
“Discrimination and erasure must not be Florida’s future. Public schools are and must remain a public good. They must be a shining example of our democratic values.” Â
— The letter to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisÂ
TRENDING @ PENAMERICA
Utah has published a state-mandated No-Read List: 13 books that must be banned in all public schools.
The state requires public schools to dispose of the 13 titles, and considered language requiring schools to “destroy” the books, prompting board member Brent Strate to say, “I don’t care if it’s shredded, burned, it has to be destroyed one way or another.”
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