Dear Friend, 

Stories tell us who we are and who we can become. 

This right – to discover, to dream, to delight – is being taken from students across the country under the guise of banning books to “protect” them. PEN America’s latest report, Banned in the USA: The Normalization of Book Banning, tracks more than 22,000 cases of book bans across 45 states since 2021. 

In hundreds of school districts, bans have become the new normal. PEN America is here to remind you: THIS IS NOT NORMAL. 

It is not normal that so many states are enforcing new laws to facilitate the wide-scale banning of books. It is not normal that some politicians are bullying school leaders into censoring according to their ideological preferences. It is not normal that access to thousands of stories is being stolen from so many children.

But wherever there are book bans, there is also resistance—from librarians, teachers, parents, students, grassroots groups, and nonprofits like PEN America, because we recognize the power of the word to transform the world.

Please join us as we speak out against censorship and challenge bans in districts and courthouses across the country. Your donation sends a message that the resistance against this new “normal” is fighting back.

PEN America
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
United States 
PEN America- Washington, DC:
1100 13th Street, NW, Washington, DC xxxxxx
PEN America- Los Angeles:
1370 N. Saint Andrews Place, Los Angeles, CA 90028

Edit your email preferences or unsubscribe