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Dear Friend,
Today marks the launch of my new book Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech For All, published by HarperCollins.
Amid an raging pandemic and an overdue reckoning with anti-Black violence and racism, we are witnessing a dramatic escalation in conflicts over the permissible bounds of speech, be it protest chants in the streets, the publication of critical books, or the voicing of disfavored views online, in the workplace, or in the media. The book is deeply informed by the work we've done at PEN America in recent years to explain how the drive for a more equal, inclusive, and just society can—and must—be reconciled with robust protections for free speech. I worry particularly about a rising generation that—for some valid reasons—has become skeptical of free speech as a smokescreen for hatred and needs to be persuaded that open discourse is conducive, rather than inimical, to the aims of social justice.
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