PEN America celebrates literature with free and low-cost quality public programming, authors’ evenings, advocacy trainings, writers workshops, community gatherings and more. Check out the PEN America event calendar for exciting online and in-person events!

Naval Academy deems a good dog a bad dog
PEN America President Jennifer Finney Boylan joined Ali Velshi’s Banned Book Club on MSNBC to talk about her memoir Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs, which was recently banned in the U.S. Naval Academy library. “Dogs are a measure of different kinds of love,” said Boylan, discussing using dogs as a narrative device for life. “There's a way in which each of the dogs in our lives shows the kind of love that we've received and the kind of life that we've lived.” (MSNBC)

9 books on their way to SCOTUS
Six Maryland parents want the option to remove their children from classrooms during lessons using  LGBTQ-related books. In a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear on April 22, PEN America filed an amicus brief supporting the nine targeted authors, saying this leads to stigmatization and censorship. (Read the press release)

Harvard becomes higher ed hero
PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman was on The Daily Blast podcast with The New Republic journalist Greg Sargent, dissecting what Harvard’s refusal of the Trump administration’s demands means for higher education across the country. “It’s not just by any means about universities at this point,” said Friedman, “[there’s] the need for collective action, of standing together and saying, ‘We’re not going to let the democracy that has been built up in this country for so long simply crumble.’” (The New Republic)

Threats to academic freedom spread across the country
Ohio and Kentucky joined Arkansas, Utah, and Wyoming this year as states where Republicans have passed laws targeting DEI and/or promoting alternative “intellectual diversity.” Amy Reid told Inside Higher Ed that the laws “are not only significant blows to public higher education, but also reflect a galling disregard for the voters, educators and students in these states.” (Inside Higher Ed)

PEN America calls for the release of Myanmar filmmaker
As a contributor to Radio Free Asia (RFA), Shin Daewe risked everything to keep the public informed. Imprisoned in Myanmar for her work, Daewe is now further endangered as a result of the Trump administration's defunding of the U.S. Agency for Global Media which threatens to shutter RFA. Alongside nearly 40 human rights organizations, we urged Congress to take immediate action to protect these journalists in a joint letter earlier this month. 

Curation or censorship?
PEN America’s survey of museum directors, The Censorship Horizon, was referenced in an article in Chron about a Texas bill which threatens museums with $500,000 daily fines for displaying "obscene" art. Our survey found that preemptive self-censorship, as opposed to direct threats, may be more worrisome for museum professionals. (Chron)

Read the interviews, and the books!
After interviewing author Laurie Halse Anderson and Random House vice president Jamia Wilson, as they convened to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the iconic Swedish character Pippi Longstocking, we picked up their latest books, Rebellion 1776 and Make Good Trouble. After interviewing Vauhini Vara we dove into her latest series of personal essays, Searches, which tackles the growth of technology and AI interventions in our lives. For a little life and romance, we spoke to Abby Jimenez and Sarah MacLean about writing memorable love stories. (Read the interviews)

— Elana K. Arnold, author of 'Damsel', whose books are named in our lawsuit against the Rutherford County Board of Education