The principles that power our advocacy

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Dear Friend,

For months, students at Central York High School in Pennsylvania have protested against the district’s decision to “freeze” a number of books and educational materials, including titles about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., the autobiography of Malala Yousafzai, and even a CNN Sesame Street special on race in America. We put PEN America’s voice behind that student-led movement ([link removed]) , and just days ago, the district reversed its ban ([link removed]) . The students of York, Pennsylvania now have access to a range of titles and ideas that a small, strident group of people had tried to censor.

But while we won in Pennsylvania, threats to the freedom to learn are only growing nationwide. Since this spring, we’ve been leading efforts in Leander, Texas to fight back against a similar book banning effort ([link removed]) . Book bans are, of course, nothing new, but the ones we’re encountering today are borne of a pitched new phase in our culture wars, whereby heightened emphasis on matters of diversity, inclusion, and equity is meeting a determined backlash by some who believe the messages and tactics are dogmatic and even dangerous. There must be plenty of room to debate how our schools and universities tackle crucial and sensitive questions of race, gender, and history—without resorting to censorship.
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Students outside of Central York High School on September 10 to protest the ban. Credit: Jack Lanyard, York Daily Record
This week is Banned Books Week ([link removed]) , and we’ve been crisscrossing the country (masked and vaxxed, of course), bringing authors and readers together to talk about these issues bluntly and from across the political spectrum. We’ve spoken out about efforts to ban Ashley Hope Pérez’ book Out of Darkness ([link removed]) , while also chastising Amazon for de-listing a controversial title on transgender identity ([link removed]) . As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) , “While people are naturally more vociferous in opposing the censorship of opinions they agree with, a principled approach demands defending even speech you abhor.”
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At our Banned Books Week event in Austin, TX. Credit: Keep It Digital
Here at PEN America, that’s how we define our work: as coming from a place of principle. That’s what gives us credibility in these debates. Over the past three months, we wrote to the New York City Department of Education ([link removed]) condemning the removal of a mural in a Brooklyn School; we called out the Biden Justice Department ([link removed]) for not taking sufficient action against state-level laws that criminalize protests; in the wake of revelations about tracking journalists’ phones, we chastised governments around the world ([link removed]) for enabling a chilling culture of surveillance that threatens journalists and writers worldwide. In all these instances, it’s our principles that power our advocacy.
Writers Under Pressure
At our PEN America Literary Gala ([link removed]) on October 5, we’ll be bestowing the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award on three Iranian writers ([link removed]) currently facing a collective 15-year sentence in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. Baktash Abtin, Keyvan Bajan, and Reza Khandan Mahabadi ([link removed]) have risked their freedom and their families’ safety to criticize Iran’s repressive government and its efforts to silence free expression.
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Our track record in freeing honorees like Baktash, Kevyan, and Reza is striking. Of the 48 jailed writers who have received the award since 1987, 44 have been released due in part to the global attention and pressure the award generates.

Iran is just one of a number of governments worldwide that have turned their sights on writers, artists, and free expression advocates. This summer the Belarusian government forced our sister organization PEN Belarus to close ([link removed]) amid that country’s ongoing attack on dissent. We made as much noise as possible, with 2,000 of our allies writing notes of support for the writers of Belarus ([link removed]) . In addition, we rallied peer organizations ([link removed]) to condemn President Lukashenka’s efforts to shutter civil society. And we co-hosted a session at the UN Human Rights Council, “Media Under Attack in Belarus,” ([link removed]) featuring government officials from a long list of countries.

While we’ve been in awe of the bravery of our colleagues in Belarus, we’ve been equally floored by the courage of writers and creative voices in Afghanistan. While we can’t say much publicly at this moment, we brought together our Members and supporters to write 6,000 letters to members of Congress ([link removed]) demanding that the Biden administration expand and expedite visa processes for writers, journalists, and other free expression advocates in the country. We interviewed ([link removed]) experts ([link removed]) and authors ([link removed]) about how we can all do more to support exiled writers—and I wrote in Foreign Policy ([link removed]) how the Biden administration
needs to support writers and democratic defenders in exile like those pouring out of Afghanistan to truly promote democracy worldwide.

While we are an organization charged principally with defending writers, our Artists at Risk Connection ([link removed]) —or ARC—draws on our expertise and networks to extend similar protections and assistance to artists facing censorship and violence. Cuba, in particular, has long attempted to promote a very specific vision of its artistic heritage ([link removed]) while silencing, imprisoning, and abusing those who refuse to tow the party line.
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Marking two months since protests exploded across the island, we joined with PEN International and 50 other organizations worldwide ([link removed]) demanding the immediate release of Cuban artists and writers, garnering a featured essay on NPR’s Weekend Edition ([link removed]) . Our public cries to defend the rappers, painters, dancers, and artists who make Cuba a rich, diverse cultural center will not go unheard. (In addition to ARC’s work in Latin America, learn more about how we uphold artistic freedom in Asia in our new podcast Creating Artistic Resilience ([link removed]) , which just launched.)
Defining Literary Excellence
This fall, our literary conversation series PEN Out Loud ([link removed]) will feature some of the most extraordinary voices of our moment. PEN America will host Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka in partnership with LIVE from NYPL ([link removed]) to celebrate his first novel in five decades and first U.S. tour since before the pandemic; Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny ([link removed]) as they debut their novel State of Terror; The New York Times’ Pamela Paul ([link removed]) as she celebrates the publication of 100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet; and PEN America Literary Award winner Sandra Cisneros ([link removed]) as she celebrates her new book Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo. Tickets
are still on sale.
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In addition, last month we teamed up with Skylight Books Los Angeles to present Percival Everett in conversation with David L. Ulin ([link removed]) in celebration of Everett’s latest novel, The Trees. We partnered with Brooklyn Book Festival to present Maggie Nelson in conversation with Cathy Park Hong ([link removed]) in celebration of Nelson’s latest book, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint. Our online interview series The PEN Ten ([link removed]) and The PEN Pod ([link removed]) continued to feature acclaimed authors, including Morgan Parker ([link removed]) , George Packer ([link removed]) , Nawaaz Ahmed ([link removed]) , Katie Kitamura ([link removed]) , Maurice Carlos Ruffin
([link removed]) , and many more.

In September, we kicked off another cycle of our storied Literary Awards program, announcing the recipients of our 2022 Literary Grants ([link removed]) . We also published the third edition of DREAMing Out Loud: Voices of Migrant Writers ([link removed]) , an anthology tackling themes of isolation, community and the day-to-day lives of the diverse and essential immigrant population from across New York City. The book collects writings from PEN America’s DREAMing Out Loud program ([link removed]) , a tuition-free writing workshop for emerging undocumented immigrant writers available at various CUNY in-person and hybrid campuses throughout the five boroughs. Guernica magazine devoted a special issue to this year’s essays (check out "Dear Achiro" ([link removed]) by Achiro P. Olwoch, "Star" ([link removed])
by Yesica Balderrama, "The Show of Growth" ([link removed]) by Nakeisha Cantzlaar, "Rookie and the Djinn" ([link removed]) by t. jahan, and "It’s About Altares" ([link removed]) by M. Vázquez Vasquez).
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Earlier this month, our Prison & Justice Writing program concluded Temperature Check ([link removed]) —a rapid response series conceived during the early stages of the pandemic to draw attention to COVID’s impact in U.S. prisons—with a final issue ([link removed]) reflecting on the state of vaccines in prisons, the latest developments in advocacy efforts, and where past Temperature Check interviewees and contributors are now. And in June, we announced our 2021-2022 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellows ([link removed]) , whose works will include memoirs, essay collections, multimedia projects, and longform journalism pieces and bear witness to the societal consequences of mass incarceration. Our 2021-2022 cohort recently met in person for the first time in our New York City offices. Learn more about our fellows and their work here in their PEN Ten interview
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As I wrote, we’ll be gathering on October 5 under robust health and safety protocols at the American Museum of Natural History to host our first in-person PEN America Literary Gala in more than two years. We’re keeping attendance smaller this year, but we hope you’ll join us for the livestream, which will be available here ([link removed]) and on our YouTube channel ([link removed]) , where we’ll be honoring the extraordinary bravery and careers of our three PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Honorees ([link removed]) ; our PEN/Audible Literary Service Award recipient Henry Louis Gates Jr. ([link removed]) ; and our Corporate Honoree Bob Iger ([link removed]) . Special guests will include Wole Soyinka, Jodie Foster, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and so many more. It’s a can’t-miss
event.

As always, everything we do is made possible by your generous support. If you haven’t already made a year-end gift to PEN America, please consider supporting all the work that we do ([link removed] ) . We’re grateful for your support as we head into this busy fall season.

All the very best,

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Suzanne Nossel
PEN America CEO
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