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…

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  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…

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  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…

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  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…

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  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…

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  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 …

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  PEN America · [email protected]

April 16, 2025 at 9:30 PM

PEN America News: We’re Back in Court Fighting Book Bans in Tennessee

On behalf of our author members, we're challenging book removals that violate their right to freedom of expression. April 16, 2025 PEN America sues in Tennessee Today we joined a federal lawsuit as a plaintiff in Rutherford County, Tennessee, defending the constitutional right to read and write. Wit…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

April 2, 2025 at 9:16 PM

PEN America News: What the Trump Administration Doesn’t Want You to Say

We compiled a list of more than 250 words and phrases reportedly no longer considered acceptable by the Trump administration. April 2, 2025Everything They Don’t Want You to Say A growing list of words is being scrubbed from government websites and documents to remove all references not only to diver…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

March 19, 2025 at 9:01 PM

PEN America News: Celebrating the Power of Words

We hope you can join us for our upcoming events celebrating the power of literature and free expression. March 19, 2025 Save the Date for Our Spring Events We hope you can join us for our upcoming events celebrating the power of literature and free expression. The 2025 PEN World Voices Festival will…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

March 5, 2025 at 7:31 PM

PEN America News: Why Books Get Banned

A close look at the more than 10,000 instances of book bans in the last school year. March 5, 2025Cover to Cover: A Book Ban Analysis We took a close look at the more than 10,000 instances of book bans in the last school year and found that more than half of banned titles featured characters or peop…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

February 19, 2025 at 10:01 PM

PEN America News: Whose 'Golden Age'?

We won’t lose focus or stop protecting free speech and the arts. Join us.February 19, 2025 The ‘Golden Age’ That Isn’t Less than a month into the Trump presidency, it’s hard to keep track of all the ways the administration has attacked culture and free speech. Banning words like “gender” and “divers…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

February 5, 2025 at 10:01 PM

PEN America News: The Word Police

There is no act of censorship more explicit than literally banning words.February 5, 2025The Word Police After the Trump administration issued an executive order declaring government censorship of speech “intolerable in a free society,” it immediately set about doing just that. Subsequent executive …

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  PEN America · [email protected]

January 29, 2025 at 7:21 PM

Making a Stand for Truth

Special Edition January 29, 2025Dear Friend, In George Orwell’s frequently banned book 1984, the Ministry of Truth is responsible for lies. It decides what “truth” is and rewrites history with its own government-approved version of events. Real history is dropped into “memory holes” and incinerated…

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

January 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM

Free speech is being co-opted...

But we won’t stand idly by.Dear Friend, There’s a tug of war in our country over the meaning of free speech. But this isn’t any old game. It is existential. At the heart of how we live together in a democracy. At PEN America, we support and protect a vision of free speech that encourages rigorous de…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

January 22, 2025 at 8:36 PM

PEN America News: That’s Not Free Speech

President Trump’s flurry of executive orders reveal the one-sided speech he’s interested in protecting.January 22, 2025That’s Not Free Speech President Trump’s flurry of executive orders promising to restore freedom of speech while chilling language about DEI and gender reveal the one-sided speech h…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

January 8, 2025 at 9:22 PM

PEN America News: Is Free Expression at Risk?

1967 or 2025? Free speech trailblazers on resurgent educational censorship. Jan 8, 2025 PEN America Leaders Look to 2025 In the face of mounting threats to free expression in the United States and globally, PEN America leaders said that it’s essential to unite the literary community – and expressed …

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

December 31, 2024 at 5:01 PM

Last chance to fight censorship this year.

Your gift will be worth double until midnight. Dear Friend, The year is drawing to a close, and today is your last opportunity to have your gift matched. Every gift made today until midnight up to $65,000 will be worth double thanks to a generous donor. PEN America is working diligently to combat bo…

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  Gabby Chalk - PEN America · [email protected]

December 30, 2024 at 7:00 PM

Your gift will bring us into 2025 stronger than ever.

Make your donation before the end of the year. Dear Friend, The battle for free expression in the coming year will be fierce. Book bans are not slowing down, millions of students remain affected by restrictions on what can be taught in classrooms and the looming threat of federal censorship continue…

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

December 24, 2024 at 3:00 PM

Help us protect schools from censorship laws.

The potential for an onslaught of legislative attacks to censor public education is likely in 2025. Dear Friend, We’re bracing for a dizzying array of legislative attacks in 2025—laws aimed at censoring what we can read, write, learn, and imagine, jeopardizing the bedrock of our democracy. The court…

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  Summer Lopez and Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf · [email protected]

December 22, 2024 at 6:01 PM

Join us to protect the freedom to read, write, and learn in 2025.

We need your help.Dear Friend, Since 2021, PEN America has tracked more than 16,000 instances of book bans in public schools, and seen 47 pieces of legislation passed in 23 states designed to restrict what can be taught and discussed in both K-12 and college classrooms.The effects are staggering. Wo…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

December 11, 2024 at 7:49 PM

PEN America News: A Taste of Home for Narges Mohammadi

The human rights defender, journalist, and author was granted a 21-day suspension of her sentence and transferred home. A Taste of Home for Narges Mohammadi We are relieved that imprisoned Iranian writer and activist Narges Mohammadi is home for a temporary reprieve to recover from a recent complica…

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  Gabby Chalk - PEN America · [email protected]

December 3, 2024 at 1:56 PM

Protecting Free Expression – Double Your Impact This Giving Tuesday

Will you stand with us?Dear Friend,  This Giving Tuesday, help PEN America keep dystopian fiction on the pages of our favorite books and out of our day-to-day lives. If you give today, every dollar donated up to $15,000 will be MATCHED, increasing the impact and reach of your generosity.  Donate PE…

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

December 2, 2024 at 9:24 PM

Double your donation, double its impact.

Keeping fiction fictional. Dear Friend,  When we think of iconic dystopian novels like The Handmaid’s Tale, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Brave New World, we recall not just their haunting worlds, but the powerful lessons they teach. Today, it’s hard to ignore how the lines between dystopian fiction a…

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

November 29, 2024 at 3:31 PM

Our books, our choice.

Books can be powerful tools that connect us.Dear Friend,  As we enter the holiday season, we at PEN America are reflecting on all that we are thankful for, including the books that have shaped our lives–the classic stories we grew up with, and new modern classics. Yet, today, books by authors like G…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

November 27, 2024 at 2:02 PM

PEN America News: Writing as a Political Act

Writers represent the ability to imagine a different future. Writing as a Political Act Writers all too often become targets for restrictive regimes because of what they represent: the ability to imagine a different future. For the annual Day of the Imprisoned Writer, novelist and PEN America Vice P…

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

November 24, 2024 at 5:01 PM

Give us more books, not bans.

More than 10K bans last school year. Dear Friend,   As we enter a new political landscape, the right to read is threatened like never before. Our latest report released earlier this month, Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves, recorded 10,046 instances of book bans in the 2023-2024 school year, ov…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

November 13, 2024 at 8:00 PM

PEN America News: Our Fight Has Only Begun

Project 2025 means a worsening environment for free expression, taking censorial legislation to the federal level. Our Latest: 10,000+ Book Bans As we face post-election concerns about free expression, our latest report on book bans documents an exponential increase in book bans in U.S. schools, wi…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

November 8, 2024 at 2:30 PM

We Are Ready To Go

Looking ahead, together post-election   Dear Friend,  There’s a lot of uncertainty and fear in the air about how the next four years could reshape the United States for decades. No matter who occupies the White House, PEN America will remain fearless, steadfast in the values that have served us for …

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  PEN America · [email protected]

October 30, 2024 at 8:06 PM

PEN America News: Books are on the Ballot

Stay tuned for our full report on school book bans, and join us in demanding an end to censorship.Don’t Censor America: Vote for Books With less than a week until the presidential election, we revealed that Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes was the most banned book of the 2023-24 school year. It foll…

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

October 26, 2024 at 3:01 PM

No matter the outcome, PEN America will continue the work.

Threats to free speech in our polarized environment will not vanish no matter what happens on Election Day.Dear Friend,  Free speech is at stake this election season. But at PEN America, we have the power to make a difference no matter what happens. It will require concerted strategic efforts, and w…

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

October 24, 2024 at 5:00 PM

Don't Censor America

Free speech is at stake this election season.Dear Friend,   Across the country, book bans are at an all-time peak; state legislatures are pushing draconian restrictions on curricula in classrooms; local journalism is gravely diminished as a trusted source of information; and disinformation is spread…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

October 16, 2024 at 6:45 PM

PEN America News: Join the Freedom to Read Day of Action

Join Us for the Freedom to Read Day of Action Book bans continue to skyrocket across the country – with more than 10,000 in the 2023-2024 school year. This Saturday, PEN America joins Unite Against Book Bans, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and other allies to show support f…

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  Maayan Dauber - PEN America · [email protected]

September 28, 2024 at 5:47 PM

It’s not too late to support PEN America this Banned Books Week.

Together, we can ensure that every student, in every school, has the freedom to read and learn. Dear Friend,   As we approach the end of Banned Books Week, PEN America has spent time mobilizing writers, readers, and activists to defend the freedom to read. With 10,000 books and counting banned in t…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

September 18, 2024 at 4:01 PM

PEN America News: Join Us for Banned Books Week

PEN America News: Join Us for Banned Books Week For Banned Books Week, we invite you to join the writers, readers and activists standing against censorship and support the freedom to read for all. View this email in your browser Sep 18, 2…

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  PEN America · [email protected]

September 4, 2024 at 9:30 PM

PEN America News: Are Campuses Ready for More Protests This Fall?

PEN America News: Are Campuses Ready for More Protests This Fall? Universities have a difficult task this fall. View this email in your browser Sep 4, 2024 A New Season of Protest on Campus …

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  PEN America · [email protected]

August 21, 2024 at 9:17 PM

PEN America News: 'A Perfect Recipe for Censorship' in Iowa

PEN America News: 'A Perfect Recipe for Censorship' in Iowa A new federal appeals court ruling is bad news for books in Iowa. View this email in your browser Aug 21, 2024 ‘A Perfect Recipe for Censorship’ …

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  PEN America · [email protected]

August 7, 2024 at 10:45 PM

PEN America News: Utah's No-Read List 👀

PEN America News: Utah's No-Read List 👀 A list of books banned statewide has been released. View this email in your browser Aug 7, 2024 A Dark Day for the Freedom to Read in Utah The Utah …

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