The 100 Day Assault on Free Expression |
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In its first 100 days, the Trump administration launched a frontal assault on freedom of expression unlike anything seen in this country since the McCarthy era. Through vague, vitriolic, and overbroad executive orders and other actions, the Trump administration has attacked rights, ideas, and words it doesn’t agree with, justifying some edicts by claiming an intent to liberate Americans through a twisted and false version of “restoring free speech.” |
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Can’t Miss: The 20th World Voices Festival |
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In the fractious time after the Sept. 11 attacks, then-PEN America President Salman Rushdie thought back to a lively congress of writers held by PEN America many years before. “It was sort of exciting for a young writer to be there amongst all these giants yelling at each other,” Rushdie said years later. “There were lots and lots of really terrible arguments.” That sort of contretemps is at the heart of the PEN World Voices Festival, now in its 20th year. Join us for events in New York and Los Angeles featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ava DuVernay, Jennifer Egan, Jennifer Finney Boylan, M. Gessen, Dinaw Mengetsu, Lynn Nottage, George Packer, Jodi Picoult, Francine Prose, Gary Shteyngart, Burhan Sönmez, and more.
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Number of Jailed Writers Reaches New High |
Last year, 375 writers were unjustly detained or imprisoned in connection with their writing, work, or related advocacy in 40 countries worldwide—the highest number PEN America has recorded in six years of tracking for our annual Freedom to Write Index. The report provides a harrowing tally of the increasing number of writers held worldwide, including in China, the top jailer of writers for six consecutive years, followed by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Israel. |
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Our 61st annual Literary Awards ceremony, hosted by two-time Emmy Award-winning television host Tamron Hall, with performances by J. Harrison Ghee and Ulysses Owens Jr., will award nearly $350,000, to writers, translators, editors, and critics for excellence in fiction, poetry, essay, nonfiction, and more. Join us at The Town Hall in New York City on May 8! |
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This week’s Member Spotlight features Bad Naturalist: One Woman's Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop by PEN America Member Paula Whyman. With humor, humility, and awe, one woman attempts to restore 200 acres of farmland long gone-to-seed in the Blue Ridge Mountains, facing her own limitations while getting to know a breathtaking corner of the natural world. |
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| Yes, Virginia, Your Flag Has Been Banned
In a school district west of Houston, elementary school students can no longer learn about a controversial topic: the state of Virginia. The district said the state flag violated the school board’s new policy against “frontal nudity.” |
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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! |
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Mon. May 5, 2025
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM ET
ONLINE
In recognition of World Press Freedom Day, PEN America is proud to present a virtual live reading of a 1949 radio dramatization of George Orwell’s haunting novel, 1984. This reading is open to the public via Zoom. Performed by distinguished actors from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area (with sound design by Chandler “ARSENiK” Solomon), the reading will be followed by an in(cite)ful conversation led by prominent North Carolina author Joseph Bathanti, exploring artists speaking truth to power under authoritarian regimes.
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| Watch: PEN America Leadership on CNN
Interim CEO Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf and Board of Trustees Vice President Dinaw Mengestu spoke about how writers are resisting censorship as we prepare for mutual dialogue at the World Voices Festival. Watch >> |
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The Assault on Universities
PEN America gathered data to measure the impact of the Trump administration’s assault on American campuses, from $400 million in research and grants canceled at Columbia to the 60 probes launched by the Education Department of universities and the 75.3% of scientists considering leaving the United States. By the numbers >> A Pledge to Our Democracy
More than 100 champions of higher education joined A Pledge to Our Democracy – a powerful call to action for a united response to rising authoritarian threats to American society. Read the pledge >>
White House Press Pool Changes
The White House is exerting unprecedented control over who gets to join the approximately 13-person press pool, increasingly favoring sympathetic outlets and sidelining reporters from organizations known for holding the powerful to account. 5 Reasons That Should Alarm You >> Defending LGBTQ-Affirming Books at the Supreme Court
Last week, the Supreme Court heard a case about whether parents must be given the chance to opt their children out of books reflecting LGBTQ+ identities, something we opposed in an amicus brief. The authors of the books said, “We wrote our books so that all children can feel seen. We wrote them so that all children can learn to be kind. Hiding our books away sends a devastating message to students: that their lives and their families are so dangerous that they cannot be discussed in school.” We interviewed several of the authors about why these books are important. Read the interviews >>
Recommended Reading
In our latest PEN Ten interview, PEN International President Burhan Sönmez spoke about Lovers of Franz K., translated by Sami Hêzil, and why imagining a better future is crucial to the time we’re living in. “Losing our sense of resistance to evil and forgetting to imagine a better tomorrow, that would be a danger to humanity …I am happy to see that those who continue to create beauty and fight for humanity are still strong enough to bother the authorities.” Read the interview >>
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“I was going to say that banning books is the utmost form of philistinism, but actually I think that’s wrong. A philistine is ignorant of culture, ignorant of its power. Those who ban books are all too aware of the power of books.”
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— Poet Seán Hewitt, author of Open, Heaven in a PEN Ten interview |
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