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August 20, 2025
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Censoring the Past at National Parks
As the National Park Service prepared to celebrate its 109th birthday, rangers and other staff — already reduced in number by the widespread firings of federal workers — spent weeks scrambling to review signage for topics that may be considered “disparaging” or reflective of “corrosive ideology.” Among the materials flagged were signs describing the brutality of slavery, the impact of climate change, and the imprisonment of Native Americans. As one parks advocate put it, “This is just not how you make a country great. Great countries do not hide from their history.”
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This Is How We Lose Our Grip on the Truth
There are small moments in the downward trajectory of our democracy that warrant special attention. The revelation that the Smithsonian had removed references to President Trump’s impeachments from an exhibit about the American presidency stood out as one such moment. Since then, the president fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over a jobs report he didn’t like, deployed the National Guard in Washington, D.C. for an emergency that doesn’t exist, and claimed the Smithsonian focuses too much on “how bad slavery is.” Trump is establishing that the government should tweak information to his liking. And that is how we can lose our grasp on the truth about both the past and the present.
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What Free Expression Means on Campus
Amid escalating attacks on free expression at American universities, we don’t often hear from students about how government interference affects the college experience. With the generous support of The Kresge Foundation, we spoke to 11 undergraduate students about the need for open dialogue on campus. “Your right to express yourself is so integral to what it means to be an American,” one student told us.
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Former PEN America Writing For Justice Fellow JD Mathes’ life and work have been shaped by extremes—fighting wildfires in the American West, serving in the military, living in the desert as a child, and enduring a period of incarceration in the 1980s. Mathes discussed his forthcoming memoir, Of Time and Punishment (Texas A&M University Press) , and the discipline of writing through uncertainty. [link removed] [[link removed]]
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More 2025 publications by PEN America Members >> [[link removed]]
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Thu. August 21, 2025
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET
ONLINE
We're celebrating Women in Translation Month with a bilingual reading series, gathering voices from across time zones for an international celebration. The August 21 session will be moderated by Nancy Naomi Carlson , with readings in Dutch, French, German (South Africa), Persian, and Spanish (Chile).
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Fri. September 19, 2025
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM ET
92NY
Sam Sussman joins 92NY for the launch of his highly anticipated debut novel — an emotionally searing story about loss, memory, love, and Bob Dylan — Boy from the North Country. In a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winner and former PEN America President Ayad Akhtar , Sussman will discuss his singular debut.
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Sat. October 11
7:00 PM ET
Poughkeepsie
PEN America is a proud co-presenter of the 2025 Eleanor Roosevelt Banned Book Awards Ceremony. Taking place during Banned Books Week, the event will present awards to 10 writers, including bestselling author Margaret Atwood who will receive the lifetime achievement “Bravery in Literature Award.” PEN America President Jennifer Finney Boylan will deliver the keynote speech.
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[link removed] [[link removed]] Can America's Students Handle the Truth About Cats and Dogs?
Tennessee doesn't think so. When nearly 600 books were banned from Monroe County school libraries and classrooms earlier this year, The Complete Book of Cats and The Complete Book of Dogs by Rosie Pilbeam were two of them.
Why are books about cats and dogs landing on removal lists? We went to the Brooklyn Cat Cafe looking for answers.
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Targeting Journalists in Gaza
The killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza by the Israeli military raises grave concerns about ongoing attacks against Palestinian journalists and media freedom by the government of Israel, and could amount to a war crime. Read the statement >> [[link removed]]
‘We Trust the Expertise of Educators and Librarians’
Kasey Meehan was interviewed by WPLG Local 10 about the nuance that is missing from conversations about recent school book bans in South Florida. Watch the segment >> [[link removed]]
In Texas, Fears of ‘Thought Police’
Texas Senate Bill 37 establishes a political appointee tasked with investigating violations of the state’s DEI bans. “They’re establishing an outside monitor to look over your shoulder and make you toe the line,” said Amy Reid . Read more in [[link removed]] Inside Higher Ed>> [[link removed]] [[link removed]]
Recommended Reading: The PEN Ten Interviews
In our latest PEN Ten interviews, we spoke to Eliana Alves Cruz about the concept of "'decolonial' translation" in her novel Solitaria (translated from Portuguese by Benjamin Brooks ) and Yiming Ma about the role of collective memory in his debut novel These Memories Do Not Belong to Us. Read more >> [[link removed]]
PEN America Will Put $1.4m Grant Toward Defending Public Libraries
The Mellon Foundation has awarded PEN America $1.4 million to fortify its work defending public libraries and librarians facing threats to their work and safety. “As open access to books has come under increasing attack, the historic role of public libraries as powerful community spaces for building empathy and critical thinking is in jeopardy,” said Jonathan Friedman. Read the press release >> [[link removed]] Read coverage in Publishers Weekly >> [[link removed]]
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"Just because a book isn't for you doesn't mean it couldn't be purr-fect for someone else."
— Author Raj Haldar
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