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. Award-winning authors George M. Johnson and Leah Johnson, both of whom have been widely banned, emphasized at the rally that every student has the right to read literature that features characters whose identities reflect their own. “You’re not going to just accept a world that says that your stories don’t matter, or that your stories are obscene, or the stories that reflect you don’t deserve a space on every single shelf,” Leah Johnson said.
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Preserving Journalism Around the World |
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When independent news media outlets were shut down throughout Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we launched the Russian Independent Media Archive (RIMA), a multimillion-dollar tech collaboration between PEN America and Bard College. This week, we announced that after saving 149 Russian archives we are expanding the project globally as Kronika, a multi-language digital platform designed to safeguard journalism in any country and ensure that the historical record cannot be obliterated by censorship.
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Ann Patchett, Jason Blum to receive PEN America Honors |
PEN America will honor bestselling novelist and bookseller Ann Patchett and Oscar-nominated film producer Jason Blum at our 2026 Literary Gala. They join an illustrious group of past honorees including President Barack Obama, Ava DuVernay, Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, and the late Toni Morrison. |
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The PEN Ten: An Interview with Kiran Desai |
Booker Prize-winning author Kiran Desai joined us for a PEN Out Loud event to discuss her new novel, The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny, one of the most anticipated books of the year. In an interview with PEN America, she said of the nearly two decades she spent writing it after The Inheritance of Loss: “I didn't notice the years passing. I merged my life and my art almost completely.” |
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Snapshots of Censorship at Universities |
As we survey the landscape of higher education, the web of forces aligning to silence faculty – state legislation, federal initiatives, and campus overcompliance – seems overwhelming. That is why we began compiling “Snapshots of Censorship,” personal accounts that drive home the myriad ways in which academic freedom is being stifled across the country. |
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Wed. December 10, 2025
7:00 PM ET
ONLINE
Join us for an evening celebrating the winners of the 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Eleven of the winning writers will read selections from their stories, which have been anthologized in Best Debut Short Stories 2025 (Catapult). Lydi Conklin, one of the 2025 judges, will host the reading. |
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| What are the Best Books of 2025? |
Dizzied by all of the “Best of 2025” book lists? PEN America compiled a list of titles repeated across 15 of the top lists. |
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A Canceled Visit Leads to Change
Author Darcie Little Badger canceled her appearance at Weber State University after receiving a list of prohibited terms, which includes the terms “bias,” “oppression,” and “racial privilege.” After PEN America criticized the university, it announced it would revise its policies.
Read more in the Salt Lake Tribune >>
Read the PEN America statement >> Sexual Experience ‘Deserves Space on the Page’
Elana K. Arnold’s six YA novels, ranging from a coming-of-age story inspired by Oedipus Rex to historical fiction set during Holocaust-era Romania, have racked up more than 200 bans since 2021. Award-winning novelist Bill Konigsberg is fed up with book bans. too. “I think of myself, and I think of a lot of people who write young adult books, as benevolent souls who are trying to help,” he told us. We spoke to Arnold and Konigsberg for our series with creators about the need for sexual content in books.
Read the interview with Arnold >>
Read the interview with Konigsberg >> In Her Words: Uplifting the Voices of Women in Gaza
“The voices of women in Gaza – writers, artists, and journalists, are more than what happened,” writes Ibtisam Mahdi, a Palestinian journalist reporting from Gaza. “They have become a memory fault, living testimony, and engines of justice and communal healing after months of violence and devastation.”
Read the essay >> Apply Now: DREAMing Out Loud
DREAMing Out Loud is a paid, tuition-free creative writing workshop series for writers from all immigrant communities and backgrounds, both citizens and non-citizens. In workshops led by established writers, 40 participants are provided a modest stipend to develop original fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and plays to perform at public readings and to publish in various print and digital formats, including our annual anthology.
Applications are open until Dec. 17 >> Disappointment from the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court decision to decline to hear Little v. Llano County –a case challenging book removals from the Llano County, Texas, public library – leaves a lower court ruling in place that in effect allows state and local government to tell people what they can and cannot read.
Staff Attorney Elly Brinkley was quoted in the AP story >> We Spoke About Safety at Dozens of Journalism Conferences. Here’s What We Learned.
Amid escalating attacks on press freedom in the U.S., PEN America’s digital safety team crisscrossed the country in 2025 to talk about journalist safety. What became clear was the need for more proactive safety measures within the newsroom, at conferences, and in the community.
What we learned >>
Read more about best practices >> Congratulations to Our Literary Grant Winners!
PEN America announced its 2026 literary grant winners for works in progress, including awards for oral history, children’s and young adult novelists, immigrant and refugee writers, and translation grants.
Read about the winning entries >> |
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"This novel does not take a political position, but it does take a moral position, which is if we do not restore a sense of common humanity, we are going to be in deep, deep…" |
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