Apply for the Emerging Voices Fellowship
We are accepting applications for the 2025 Emerging Voices Fellowship, given to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. Apply here >>
Art Museum Directors on Censorship
Our latest report, based on a survey of art museum directors, found that most have faced pressure to censor art. The report, a collaboration between PEN America, Artists at Risk Connection, and the Association of Art Museum Directors, found mounting concerns about censorship in the art world. Read more in Hyperallergic >>
Poets Across Lines
Kevin Sanchez came to write the stories he had been holding in for a while. Arlo Pate came to take their art seriously. RuthAnn wanted to get critiqued. Kevin L. Tarver came to be the poet he always wanted to be. Whatever their intentions, they all came to form the inaugural Poets Across Lines cohort. Watch the highlights and read their poems >>
Fighting Anti-Trans Bias
We joined author Kyle Lukoff to call out "blatant anti-trans bias” in Escambia County, Florida, where one committee member voting to ban his book called it "errant and evil" and another labeled it "absolute indoctrination of transgenderism." Read more in the Tallahassee Democrat >>
A Generous Gift
PEN America received a $1 million grant from Jeff Atwood, a software developer and co-founder of Stack Overflow, who said “I’ve seen the power of writing transform our world many times.” Check it out in the Chronicle of Philanthropy >>
Influencers and Disinformation
About one in five U.S. adults get news from influencers. As part of our Disinformation Resilience Training Series, Kurt Sampsel spoke with journalist Robert Downen, actress and activist Malynda Hale, and podcast creator and host Bridget Todd about the biggest benefits – and biggest risks – of having influencers in the information ecosystem. Read what they had to say >>
Free Speech Award
Our senior program advisor for Freedom to Read, Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson, is the recipient of the Children’s Book Council's first ever Free Speech Award. Read more in Publishers Weekly >>
The Threat of Christian Nationalism
The PEN America Florida office hosted the first United Voices for Democracy community conversation at the Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ in Miami, welcoming more than 50 attendees into an interfaith discussion about White Christian Nationalism and the threat it poses to the freedom to read and democracy.
Burn This Book
Freedom to Read Program Director Kasey Meehan spoke about book bans, and the overall work of PEN America. Listen to the interview >>
