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December 23, 2025
The Newsletter [[link removed]]
A New President for the New Year
We are pleased to welcome critically acclaimed novelist Dinaw Mengestu as PEN America’s new president and chair of the Board of Trustees. In an interview, he told us about his goal to spread the joy of literature while being a fierce advocate for free expression, and shared the books that continue to influence him.
Read the interview >> [[link removed]]
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Top 52 Banned Books of the Last Four Years
Last week, we released a list of the most frequently banned books since we began counting in 2021, beginning with John Green’s young adult modern classic Looking for Alaska. Green said having his work banned is “less and less a badge of honor and more and more cause for concern.” Jodi Picoult’s book centered around a school shooting, Nineteen Minutes , was second on the list, which also includes seven of bestselling author Sarah J. Maas’ books and seven by young adult author Ellen Hopkins .
See the list >> [[link removed]] Read the John Green interview >> [[link removed]]
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Ben Folds on Resigning From the Kennedy Center
When Ben Folds stepped into the role of artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, it wasn’t political. But even before it was renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center last week, the writing was on the wall. In conversation with PEN America, Folds talked about his decision to step down from the Kennedy Center, art as activism, and why he doesn’t believe in writer's block.
Read the interview >>
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Literary Awards Longlists
We are thrilled to share the longlists for our 2026 PEN America Literary Awards. More than half of the titles on the longlists are published by independent presses and more than a third are from debut authors/translators! With a list that includes fiction, biography, poetry, translation, science writing, and more, this year’s longlists have something for every reader.
See the list >> [[link removed]]
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Apply for PEN America’s Emerging Voices Fellowship
PEN America’s Emerging Voices Fellowship will select 10 early career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world for a virtual five-month mentorship program. The fellowship includes curated one-on-one mentorship, workshops, introductions to editors, agents, and publishers, and an honorarium of $1,500. The application period is from January 1 - January 31, 2026.
Apply >> [[link removed]]
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Get Gifts & Fight Censorship
This year we uncovered bans on reference books, art books, even Calvin and Hobbes. But this holiday season we won't let anyone ban our merch! Show your support for the fight against book bans by shopping PEN America original T-shirts, tote bags, sweaters, mugs, and more.
Use the discount code FREE2READ10 for 10% off >> [[link removed]]
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[link removed] [[link removed]] Book Bans "Wrapped"
We joined with the American Library Association, the Texas Freedom to Read Project, the Florida Freedom to Read Project, and Kelly Jensen of BookRiot to look at the year in book censorship.
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Banned Words at Head Start
The latest federal program to fall victim to the Trump Administration’s war on words is the early learning program Head Start. Court papers related to a suit brought against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) show that in November, a program director was sent a list of 197 words and phrases to avoid. The list includes “accessible,” “cultural sensitivity,” “diverse communities,” “equal opportunity,” “immigrants,” “minority,” “pregnant people,” “trauma,” and “underserved.”
Read more >> [[link removed]]
Traveling for the Holidays? Here’s How Writers Stay on Task
This year, we asked 10 authors to tell us what habits they maintain and what items they carry with them when traveling to support their writing practice, from biting into ginger root to playing pick-up basketball games. For Kiran Desai , it’s noise-canceling headphones, “because I always, always, end up staying in a place near a loud building site. Maybe we all always end up near a loud building site. Maybe that is the only certainty of modern life.”
Read more >> [[link removed]]
Our Favorite Reads of 2025
No shortage of incredible literature was released during 2025. PEN America already compiled a list of 15 titles featured across multiple “best of” lists, but we wanted to offer up some recommendations of our own, too.
Staff picks >> [[link removed]]
'Best of' lists >> [[link removed]]
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“I don’t think that people would be so interested in banning books if books weren’t powerful. Books are powerful, and stories have a powerful role to play in our lives. They help us to feel less alone. They help us to feel seen and more than that, they help us to see others.”
— John Green , author of Looking for Alaska, the most frequently banned book of the past four school years.
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