NEW YORK — PEN America organized an open letter today to an Iowa school district calling on district leaders to reverse an order to remove nearly 400 book titles if they are found in district classrooms. The list includes classic novels like J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, along with new prize-winning books. Urbandale Community […]
PEN America
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System to Report Online Abuse is “Deeply Flawed” at Every Level. Report Shows How to Fix It
NEW YORK, June 29, 2023 – Millions of social media users face harmful harassment, intimidation, and threats to their free expression online but encounter a “deeply flawed” reporting system that fails at every level to safeguard them and hold abusers to account, according to a new report by global nonprofits PEN America and Meedan. In exposing these […]
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“Outrageous Government Censorship,” PEN America Response to Removal of Ta-Nehisi Coates Memoir from South Carolina AP Course
NEW YORK June 13, 2023 — PEN America responded today to the removal of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ acclaimed memoir Between the World and Me from an advanced placement course in South Carolina, calling it “an outrageous act of government censorship.” As reported, earlier this spring students in the Chapin High School classroom reported a teacher for including Coates’ memoir and two […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Moira Marquis, PEN America: Plan to digitize mail at NYC’s Rikers Island would affect books, too
February 14, 2023 – Being poor and unable to afford bail in New York can be a death sentence. The vast majority of people who died on Rikers Island prison in 2022 were classified as “suspected suicide.” This is a troublingly vague causation. Yet, the New York Department of Corrections claims concern for death is […]
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Pen America applauds Congressional resolutions condemning book bans and affirming the right to free expression in schools
With free expression and the freedom to read being undermined in America’s schools, Congressman Jamie Raskin today introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives condemning the spread of book bans in schools nationwide, as Senator Brian Schatz leads a companion resolution in the U.S. Senate. PEN America commends the lawmakers’ efforts, which reaffirm […]
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PEN America Reels from Shock and Horror over Brutal Attack on Salman Rushdie
NEW YORK, August 12, 2022 – Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, issued the following statement in response to the attack on author Salman Rushdie: “PEN America is reeling from shock and horror at word of a brutal, premeditated attack on our former President and stalwart ally, Salman Rushdie, who was reportedly stabbed multiple times […]
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New PEN America Report: 1,586 book bans and restrictions in 86 School Districts Across 26 States; Censors Target 1,145 Unique Book Titles
NEW YORK – The literary and free expression organization PEN America today released a new Index of School Book Bans and accompanying report, Banned in the USA, that documents the alarming spike in censorship of books in school districts across the country over the past nine months, with individual books and even whole categories of […]
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New PEN America Report Warns About Dangers of Educational Gag Orders
A wave of alarming legislative efforts to limit teaching and learning on topics including racism, sexism, and American history represent a censorious drive to impose viewpoint and content-based restrictions on freedom of speech and thought in American schools and universities, PEN America said in a report released today. In the report, Educational Gag Orders: Legislative Restrictions on […]
Posted inWorld
Loujain Al-Hathloul Sentenced in Sham Saudi Trial
New York, NY, December 29, 2020 – PEN America condemns the conviction and sentence of five years and eight months handed down to Saudi women’s rights activist and 2019 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write awardee Loujain Al-Hathloul in a deeply flawed trial that concluded today. The sentence handed down today includes a suspended portion of 2 years and 10 months, […]
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Pen America: White House Blocking Officials from CNN Is Wanton Act of Coercion
New York, NY, April 9, 2020 – The vice president’s office is declining to make top public health officials available to CNN for interviews in an attempt to coerce the network to air the entirety of the president’s daily briefings. Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, said the following: “The White House’s attempt to swap access […]
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Federal court ruling in favor of PEN America is blow to Trump’s retaliation against media companies, journalists
New York, NY, March 24, 2020 — Today a federal court ruled against President Trump in a lawsuit that claims he has used government power to retaliate against media coverage and reporters he dislikes in violation of the First Amendment. Specifically, the court denied a government motion to dismiss the case and will allow it […]
Posted inLife
For National Book Banning Week, PEN America to Focus on the Right to Read in U.S. Prisons
New York, NY, Sept. 12, 2019 – America’s prison system implements that largest book ban in the United States. This year, as part of national Banned Books Week (Sept. 22 – 28), the free expression and literary organization PEN America will launch a weeklong initiative to shed light on the practice of banning books in […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Suzanne Nossel, PEN America: Trump’s refusal to own up to his role in fanning racist and xenophobic violence is nothing short of deadly
New York, NY, Aug. 5, 2019 – This morning, in response to two deadly mass shootings, President Trump claimed “fake news” had contributed to “the anger and rage that has built up over many years.” In response, PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel issued the following statement. Sadly, this is a case where the metaphor ‘kill […]
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Serious Alarm Over Report FBI Has Asked U.S. College to Monitor Chinese Students
New York, July 1, 2019 – Reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reaching out to U.S. universities to urge monitoring of Chinese students and scholars raises serious concerns about privacy rights, racial profiling, and academic freedoms, PEN America said. Public reporting has revealed that FBI and other government officials have been advising American universities […]
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Trump Executive Order on “Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability” at Colleges Risks Chilling More Speech Than it Protects
NEW YORK, March 21, 2019—In response to President Trump signing an Executive Order entitled “Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities” including terms that deal with free speech and inquiry on campus, PEN America released the statement below: “PEN America has extensively documented and spoken out regarding our concerns about threats to free speech […]