A Joyful Day for Vladyslav Yesypenko |
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We are overjoyed that Ukrainian journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko, our 2022 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award honoree, was released from Russian custody and reunited with his wife, Kateryna, and his daughter, Stefania. Arrested while reporting in Russian-occupied Crimea, Yesypenko was accused of baseless charges of espionage and the illegal manufacture of firearms, tortured with electric shocks, forced to confess, and threatened with death. We celebrate Vlad’s freedom and this victory for free expression as we continue to fight for every writer and journalist still imprisoned in Russia and around the world.
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‘Calvin and Hobbes’ and Cat Encyclopedia Among Latest Banned Books |
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Calvin and Hobbes, The Complete Book of Cats, and Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic joined titles by Mary Pope Osborne, Judy Blume, Eric Carle, and Kurt Vonnegut on a mind-boggling list of hundreds of books purged from some Tennessee school libraries. The removals are the result of a change to state law that considers any materials that “in whole or in part” contain any “nudity, or descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse” are inappropriate for all students.
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Help Us Defend NPR and PBS |
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In the coming weeks the Senate will vote on $1.1B in cuts to public media (NPR and PBS) that are a lifeline to rural and small communities across America. Write to your Senator today and urge them to preserve the funding already promised to keep the cultural independent public media so many rely on! |
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Literary Award Submissions Open |
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We are pleased to share that submissions are now open for the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards, celebrating outstanding literary work across genres, and the 2026 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for emerging writers. We encourage you to consider submitting your recent publications for consideration and to spread the word among your community! |
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This week’s Member Spotlight features an interview with Uchechi Kalu. A poet, singer, embracer of adventure, and former Emerging Voices fellow, Kalu outlines her journey to becoming a certified financial planner and shares how her background in writing fills a niche in the money world that so often gets overlooked. |
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| Dog Day Afternoon
Turns out the book banners who told you their only concern was "pornography" are also trying to restrict many students' right to read about cats and dogs. In one recent example, The Complete Book of Dogs was among nearly 600 titles pulled from school library shelves recently in Monroe County, Tennessee, but many more dog-related books have been singled out for censorship in a variety of school districts. |
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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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Fri. June 27, 2025
11:00 AM ET
Free
Online
Join us to mark the 35th birthday of poet, lyricist, and PEN America’s 2025 Freedom to Write honoree Galal El-Behairy, currently detained in Egypt for his words. The PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center will host a powerful conversation on the enduring role of creative expression as a tool of peaceful resistance and the unbreakable link between creativity and dissent, from the perspective of Egyptian writers living in exile due to reprisals for their work. |
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Tue. July 8, 2025
3:00 PM ET
Free
Online
Uchechi Kalu’s work as a Certified Financial Planner is informed by her unique perspective as a poet and addresses the disparity that artists, first-generation Americans, and women of color face around financial planning. We are thrilled to host her for a member-exclusive webinar that will prepare writers for today’s money matters.
This is a member-exclusive event. To become a PEN America member, visit pen.org/join. |
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A Travel Ban Reading List
President Trump’s travel ban on nationals from 12 countries, and restrictions on travel and student visas for an additional seven countries, ignore the many rich benefits to American culture from cross-cultural exchanges that immigrants from these countries and their descendants provide. Let this global reading list inspire you to read and explore beyond our borders. Read more >>
Fear and Uncertainty in Black History Classrooms
As the country goes through a round of sweeping changes under the Trump administration, teaching Black history, especially, is imperiled. “Being a teacher in 2025 is probably one of the hardest things that anyone can do,” said Dr. Quiennise Miller, an assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. Read more >>
Australian Writer’s Deportation Fits Disturbing Pattern
We expressed grave concern about the deportation of Australian writer Alistair Kitchen, a former Columbia University postgraduate student who said he was told by U.S. border officials he had been held because of his writing on pro-Palestinian campus protests. (The Guardian)
Recommended Reading
V.E. Schwab told us about the toxic lesbian vampires in her latest, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, and Poet Laureate of Birmingham Salaam Green worked with the community to produce The Other Revival. Read the interviews >> |
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“Queer characters – and by extension queer people – deserve to be depicted with the same nuance and complexity as their straight counterparts. They deserve to be heroes and villains and everything between.”
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