Discourse—and more

Dear Friend,

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and resulting meltdown for free speech, press freedom and cultural exchange, the death of 2021 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write honoree Baktash Abtin while detained in Iran, the ferocious wave of book bans sweeping the United States, and a roiling national debate on the status of free speech within society have made the last few months a period of pulsing intensity for PEN America. For years, it's as if any time we make out a potential quiet period on the horizon, breaking events snatch away any sense of calm.

Jennifer Egan at PEN America's candlelight vigil on behalf of Ukraine

We are joined with our colleagues in PEN Ukraine responding to the invasion and working to assist writers, journalists, and artists in mortal danger. We are also focused on making sure the words and perspectives of Ukrainian writers and intellectuals are heard on the world stage. We hosted Words and War, a discussion with three Ukrainian writers, including PEN Ukraine President Andrey Kurkov, moderated by former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, and Voices of Ukraine, a reading in support of Ukraine with prominent American writers alongside Ukrainian authors. Following our 2022 Literary Awards Ceremony on February 28, we led a candlelight vigil in Times Square, where composer and musician Laurie Anderson and authors Jennifer Egan, Ann Patchett, and Gary Shteyngart read from the works of Ukrainian thinkers and poets. We are also engaged with the many independent Russian writers, journalists and dissidents who oppose the war and have either fled the country or been forced to live under conditions of unprecedented repression of free speech and press freedom. I penned a caution on calls for a blanket boycott of Russian culture in The Wall Street Journal. Our unwavering solidarity cannot override our fundamental faith in the power of creativity and discourse as antidotes to dehumanization and aggression.

We also mourned the loss of Baktash Abtin, the Iranian poet and filmmaker who died on January 8 from COVID, which he contracted in Evin prison during his unjust imprisonment. PEN America continues urgent calls for the unconditional release of Abtin’s fellow Freedom to Write Award honorees, writers Keyvan Bajan and Reza Khandan Mahabadi, who remain at risk. And in a reminder that the crisis in Afghanistan is intensifying, PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection launched, in February, Before Silence: Afghan Artists in Exile, an online exhibition presenting the work of multidisciplinary Afghan artists who have been persecuted and targeted since August 2021.

A packed house gathered in person for a thrilling and celebratory PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony at midtown’s Town Hall, hosted once again by Seth Meyers. The event honored titans of the written word and captivating emerging voices in a variety of genres, conferring juried awards, grants, and prizes totaling more than $350,000 to more than 40 writers and translators. The PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature recognized Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award went to Elaine May. We also recognized Jackie Sibblies Drury with the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award. Among this year’s book award winners were PEN/Jean Stein Book Award winner Daisy Hernández for The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease; PEN Open Book Award recipient Divya Victor for Curb; Yoon Choi, who won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection for Skinship; and Torrey Peters, who won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel for Detransition, Baby, among many others.

PEN America is the leading national voice working to counter the nationwide wave of book bans, and educational gag orders in schools and on college campuses, which we have been tracking here. We recognize that curriculum and book choices are legitimate subjects of community debate, that parents must have a say. But, as I outlined in this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, these bans are not being instigated by individual concerned parents or citizens. They are part of a concerted campaign of viewpoint-based censorship aimed to muzzle voices and thwart the ramifications of demographic and social change. We are challenging these book bans, maintaining a public voice in support of free expression, and analyzing the political underpinnings and grave consequences of educational gag orders. To support this work, we have partnered with parents’ groups, published a tip sheet for authors, launched a petition supporting the freedom to read, and prepared a database of banned books.

Disturbed by these efforts to limit the right to read, PEN America Trustee and Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle pledged $500,000 to establish the Dohle Book Defense Fund. The aim is to help PEN America to preserve open discourse and defend the place of books as a pillar of American democracy and society. Penguin Random House spotlighted PEN America’s work and leadership during a virtual panel on Banned Books: When Books Are Threatened, Where Do We Turn?, featuring Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Nic Stone, and Nikole Hannah-Jones and moderated by Dr. Emily Knox.

Many of these book bans and educational gag orders relate to LGBTQ+ authors, characters, or subjects, which led us to host a media briefing with allies Equality Florida, GLAAD, and PFLAG and authors George M. Johnson, Jennifer Finney Boylan, and Malinda Lo, to make sure that people understand the hateful roots of these proposed rules.

After a major editorial in The New York Times on the brewing free speech crisis in America sparked significant debate, I appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss these contentious yet critical questions, drawing on the ideas spelled out in my book, Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All (HarperCollins, 2020). I was also part of a fiery discussion this week about cancel culture on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show with The Nation’s Elie Mystal.

Our work to give voice to writers who are incarcerated in U.S. prisons took a major step forward with the January launch of The Sentences That Create Us: Creating a Writer’s Life in Prison, edited by Caits Meissner, director of PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program. The volume brings together more than 50 essays, most by authors with justice involvement. Support from the Mellon Foundation will allow us to distribute 75,000 copies to libraries and creative writing programs in prisons nationwide.

PEN America Los Angeles has returned to in-person programming with a New Year New Books party, PEN Presents events featuring Reyna Grande and Héctor Tobar, and PEN Out Loud programs featuring authors like Julissa Arce and Aida Rodriguez, as well as a new limited event series with the LA Times Ideas Exchange, including a first conversation on the impact of Chinese censorship on Hollywood. We also welcomed our eighth chapter, PEN America Utah, with an event in Salt Lake City featuring PEN America President Ayad Aktar. Elsewhere, PEN America staff presented at the annual AWP Conference in Philadelphia and at the Dallas Literary Festival.

As we work to defend free expression, I am continually excited at the prospect of the next generation taking up this all-important mission. Our work with high school and college students through Free Speech Advocacy Institutes and our upcoming new Global Press Freedom Advocacy Institute is truly inspiring.

Your ongoing enthusiasm and support for PEN America’s work makes all of this possible. Thank you.

Suzanne Nossel
PEN America CEO

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