PEN America - Maayan Dauber · [email protected]

December 13, 2025 at 6:01 PM

Friend, the government has no place telling people what they can and cannot read.

Keeping every book on a shelf is an act of resistance. Dear Friend,   Once we start treating any act of censorship as acceptable, it becomes that much easier for more rights to be stripped away. We know from some of the ugliest chapters in modern history that the slide into authoritarianism can be s…

See More from PEN America - Maayan Dauber

  PEN America · [email protected]

December 10, 2025 at 10:16 PM

PEN America News: Rallying for Readers

“You’re not going to just accept a world that says that your stories don’t matter." December 10, 2025  December 10, 2025 Rallying for the Freedom to Read We joined dozens of New Yorkers in below-freezing temperatures to call on Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the state’s Freedom to Read Act into law. Awa…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

December 3, 2025 at 12:33 AM

Friend, thank you.

Last one from us, we promise.  Dear Friend,    From all of us at PEN America, thank you.   2025 has been a year marked by profound uncertainty — for the freedom of the press, the right to dissent, the ability to read what you choose and to say what you'd like.   In unpredictable times, philanthropic…

See More from PEN America

  Maayan Dauber · [email protected]

December 1, 2025 at 11:00 PM

PEN America knows that free expression is as American as it gets.

Your Giving Tuesday gift will go twice as far, thanks to a $25,000 match.  Dear Friend,    If we let them ban our books today, they’ll ban our apple pies tomorrow.  If you think that sounds ridiculous, it is, but absurd bans are happening everywhere. Words like “diversity” and “women” scrubbed from …

See More from Maayan Dauber

  PEN America · [email protected]

November 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM

PEN America News: We Have to Ask…

This giving season, consider contributing to an organization that protects your speech—in big moments and small ones. November 26, 2025 A Season for Free Expression It’s been a difficult year for that most American of values: free speech. Banning books. Censoring words and identities. Intimidating…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

November 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM

PEN America News: Writing Against All Odds

"Freedom of speech, baby. I’ll write until the wheels fall off." November 12, 2025 From Incarcerated Writer to Judge During more than three decades behind bars trying to prove his innocence, Brian Beals helped other inmates discover a love of writing. Now exonerated, Beals was among the judges for …

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

November 8, 2025 at 9:10 PM

Exclusive Invite: Join us for a special webinar for Day of the Imprisoned Writer

We won't let any writer imprisoned go forgotten. Dear friend,  At least 375 writers were held behind bars for their words during 2024. PEN America won't stop fighting until every one of them is free.  Join us for a powerful conversation led by PEN experts Liesl Gerntholtz and Asma Laouira of the PEN…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America - Maayan Dauber · [email protected]

November 4, 2025 at 10:32 PM

Journalists are being imprisoned for their words in America.

Mario Guevara was only the first. Dear Friend,  In June, Mario Guevara was grabbed off the streets of Atlanta for his reporting. In October, after being detained for more than 100 days, he was deported.   Guevara, a freelance reporter who fled El Salvador, lived and worked in the US legally for over…

See More from PEN America - Maayan Dauber

  PEN America · [email protected]

October 29, 2025 at 9:00 PM

PEN America News: Getting books back on the shelves

"This ruling is a solid first step in a long road to restoring and protecting students’ freedom to read in schools run for military families." October 29, 2025A Victory for the Freedom to Read A federal judge ordered the Department of Defense to restore all books banned in five schools at U.S. mili…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

October 15, 2025 at 10:03 PM

PEN America News: There’s still time to take action against book bans

Banned author Margaret Atwood warns, "the future we get is going to depend partly on what we do in the present." October 15, 2025 Atwood, Takei Headline Banned Books Week Events Banned Books Week 2025 featured events with Margaret Atwood, George Takei and many others to raise awareness of book ban…

See More from PEN America

  Kasey Meehan · [email protected]

October 4, 2025 at 10:00 PM

This can't be the new normal.

Since July 2021, more than 22,000 cases of book bans have occurred across 45 states . Dear Friend,  Stories tell us who we are and who we can become.   This right – to discover, to dream, to delight – is being taken from students across the country under the guise of banning books to “protect” the…

See More from Kasey Meehan

  PEN America · [email protected]

October 1, 2025 at 9:01 PM

Unprecedented: Nearly 23,000 Book Bans Across U.S.

Our latest report, The Normalization of Book Banning, documents nearly 23,000 instances of book removals since 2021. October 1, 2025 Banned in the USA: The Normalization of Book Banning Our latest report on the crisis of book bans documents nearly 23,000 instances of book removals since 2021 and sh…

See More from PEN America

  Maayan Dauber · [email protected]

September 21, 2025 at 2:01 PM

It doesn't end with Jimmy Kimmel

This moment is much bigger than a late-night talk show, it’s about what, as a nation, we choose to accept — and when we choose to push back.Dear Friend, It’s not just about the jokes.   The Trump administration claims to defend free speech, but doesn’t seem to have a grasp on what it actually is. PE…

See More from Maayan Dauber

  PEN America · [email protected]

September 18, 2025 at 10:11 PM

PEN America Report on Cultural Destruction in Gaza

PEN America's new report, All That Is Lost examines the destruction or partial destruction of 36 cultural, historical, religious, and educational sites in Gaza. September 18, 2025 The Israeli military’s widespread destruction of Gaza’s cultural sites, libraries, museums, and universities has inflic…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

September 3, 2025 at 10:01 PM

PEN America News: A Dangerous Precedent from the United States

"A misguided retreat from US leadership in the international community." September 3, 2025 PEN America Joins Call to Condemn U.S. Human Rights Record PEN America and PEN International jointly submitted documents ahead of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United States highli…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

August 20, 2025 at 9:30 PM

PEN America News: Hiding From History

"This is just not how you make a country great. Great countries do not hide from their history." August 20, 2025Censoring the Past at National Parks As the National Park Service prepared to celebrate its 109th birthday, rangers and other staff — already reduced in number by the widespread firings o…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

August 6, 2025 at 9:16 PM

PEN America News: Why Our Work in Florida Matters

Only by standing together can we stop these pernicious laws from spreading. August 6, 2025Doubling Down in Florida PEN America has been tracking for several years now the rise in educational censorship legislation in Florida and its consequences. With pressure by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration …

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

July 23, 2025 at 8:16 PM

PEN America News: A Devastating Blow to Public Media

The decision is "a stark betrayal of millions of Americans." July 23, 2025 Cuts to Public Media a ‘Stark Betrayal of Millions of Americans’  The House of Representatives gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to strip $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which …

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

July 9, 2025 at 10:26 PM

PEN America News: Setbacks for Press Freedom and the Right to Read

July 9, 2025 Supreme Court Establishes a New Frontier for Book Bans  The Supreme Court decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor that religious parents have the right to remove their children from classroom lessons featuring LGBTQ+-themed picture books is a deeply disappointing blow to the right to read. The r…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

June 25, 2025 at 9:25 PM

PEN America News: Freedom for Ukrainian Journalist

Today, we celebrate Vlad’s freedom. Tomorrow, we recommit to the fight for every writer and journalist still unjustly imprisoned in and by Russia June 25, 2025 A Joyful Day for Vladyslav Yesypenko  We are overjoyed that Ukrainian journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko, our 2022 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write A…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

June 11, 2025 at 9:16 PM

Public Media on the Line: Urgent Action Alert

Send an email to your Member of Congress today and urge them to defend public media. June 11, 2025Congress Votes in Days: Tell Your Representative to  Defend Public Media The Trump Administration is attempting to claw back funds from rural and local public media in a blatant attempt to silence medi…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

May 28, 2025 at 7:35 PM

PEN America News: ‘Free Speech Is Something We Have to Fight For’

"...We can joke about it – until we can’t. That’s the reality of where we’re at right now." Amber Ruffin at the PEN America Literary Gala May 28, 2025 Celebrating Defenders of Free Speech “Free speech is something we have to fight for. We can joke about it – until we can’t. That’s the reality of whe…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

May 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM

PEN America News: And the winners are...

The PEN America Literary Awards gathered legendary authors and new voices to celebrate literature at this pivotal moment. May 14, 2025 Celebrating the Best of LiteratureWe brought the “Oscars of Books” back for the 61st year in style, honoring 13 awardees across multiple genres. Hosted by two-time E…

See More from PEN America

  PEN America · [email protected]

April 30, 2025 at 5:32 PM

PEN America News: A Five-Alarm Fire for Free Expression

And it's only been 100 days. April 30, 2025The 100 Day Assault on Free Expression In its first 100 days, the Trump administration launched a frontal assault on freedom of expression unlike anything seen in this country since the McCarthy era. Through vague, vitriolic, and overbroad executive orders …

See More from PEN America