Thank you for joining our fight.

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** Welcome to PEN America News
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March 22, 2023
Dear Friend,

Welcome to our new PEN America newsletter. We’ve done some soul searching in celebration of our 100th year, which means we’ve rethought how best to share our news with you in the years ahead. We may be centenarians, but we are rising to new challenges each day.

This newsletter is where we will celebrate the writers and artists who shape our culture, while also sharing our fight for free expression in the United States and around the world. In the past, we created separate newsletters to highlight those different parts of our mission, but today we know our mission is singular. Together, we celebrate. Together, we fight.

Thank you for joining us.

Lisa Tolin
Editorial Director

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“Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control.”

– Grace Linn, 100 years old, speaking against book bans at a school board meeting in Martin County, FL this week ([link removed])
PEN DEFENDS
Fighting Book Bans

Florida schools are busy banning books, even as Gov. Ron DeSantis calls it a “nasty hoax.” Recently more than 80 titles were removed from Martin County schools, including 20 by Jodi Picoult and nine in James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series. More than 2,800 people sent letters to the school board via PEN America.
See the full list of banned books >> Send a letter to Martin County>> ([link removed])
It's Not a 'Hoax'
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DeSantis claims that only “pornographic and inappropriate” materials have been banned from Florida classrooms. Nearly everything he said in his press conference and “fact” sheet was untrue.

Read the fact sheet >> ([link removed])
See CEO Suzanne Nossel's take >> ([link removed])
How a textbook publisher erased race in Florida >> ([link removed])

PEN READS
Two Debuts to Watch

Oscar Hokeah and Morgan Talty won the awards for debut writers at the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards for Calling for a Blanket Dance and Night of the Living Rez. Both write about the Indigenous experience in America.
Read our interview with Hokeah >> ([link removed])
See the adorable reason Talty missed the ceremony >> ([link removed])
'Where It Hurts'
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Our Prison and Justice Writing Program uplifts the voices of incarcerated writers from across the country. In the program's latest newsletter, Kwaneta Harris writes from solitary confinement about how labeling medical and health-related books' "sexual content" prohibits incarcerated women from understanding their bodies.
How book bans restrict healthcare >> ([link removed])
Sign up for the Works of Justice newsletter >> ([link removed])

PEN UNITES
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THE MAGIC CITY POETRY FESTIVAL PRESENTS: AN EVENING WITH PATRICIA SMITH
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 | 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm CT
Virtual Event

Join PEN Birmingham at the Magic City Poetry Festival for a digital conversation with award-winning poet Patricia Smith. This webinar is free, open to the public, and sponsored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and PEN Birmingham.
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PEN SPEAKS
* We co-sponsored a read-in in Tallahassee ([link removed]) featuring authors Alicia D. Williams, Phil Bildner, Dhonielle Clayton, and Ellen Oh, along with activists Jack Petocz, Olivia Solomon, Will Larkins, Tallulah Brand and Michelle Jarrett.
* Julie Trébault, director of our Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), spoke at the United Nations ([link removed]) after ARC, PEN America and PEN International issued a joint statement with 183 other organizations on the cultural rights of migrant artists.
* Suzanne Nossel, our CEO: Bans on drag shows are a chilling attack on attack free speech (Guardian ([link removed]) )

WHAT WE'RE READING
* The Museum Director Who Stayed Behind to Defend Ukrainian Literature (New Yorker ([link removed]) )
* Hong Kong Bans Rapper Who Joked About Hurting the Feelings of the Chinese People (Radio Free Asia ([link removed]) )
* I Wrote One Of The Few Tween Books About Down Syndrome. A Couple Of Sentences May Get It Banned (HuffPost ([link removed]) )
* Two of the Country’s Best Translators Are Married – And Competing for the Same Big Prize (Los Angeles Times ([link removed]) )
* Book bans are a means of oppressing girls (Teen Vogue ([link removed]) )

TRENDING ON PEN AMERICA

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PEN America member Jodi Picoult has been a champion in the fight against book bans, and now has made her TikTok debut with a viral video viewed by more than 1.4 million people. In it, she described how 20 of her books had been pulled from shelves in Martin County, Florida, due to complaints from one parent.

Watch the video >> ([link removed])
Are you pronouncing 'Picoult' wrong? >> ([link removed])
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