PEN America

File:Updike, Mailer, Doctorow at the PEN Congress, cropped.jpg, Norman Mailer, E. L. Doctorow]]

PEN America was formed on April 19, 1922, in New York City, and included among its initial members writers such as Willa Cather, Eugene O'Neill, Robert Frost, Ellen Glasgow, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Robert Benchley. Booth Tarkington served as the organization's first president.

PEN America's founding came after the launch of PEN International in 1921 in London by Catherine Amy Dawson-Scott, a British poet, playwright, and peace activist, who enlisted John Galsworthy as PEN International's first president. The intent of PEN International was to foster international literary fellowship among writers that would transcend national and ethnic divides in the wake of World War I. PEN America subscribes to the principles outlined in the PEN International Charter.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/pen-charter2/|title=PEN Charter – PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}}

PEN America presidents have included current president Jennifer Finney Boylan, Ayad Akhtar, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Louis Begley, Ron Chernow, Joel Conarroe, Jennifer Egan, Frances FitzGerald, Peter Godwin, Francine Prose, Salman Rushdie, Michael Scammell, and Andrew Solomon.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-25 |title=Freedom to Read Statement, Drafted 70 Years Ago, Is Vital Today in a New Time of Censorship |url=https://pen.org/press-release/freedom-to-read-statement-drafted-70-years-ago-is-vital-today-in-a-new-time-of-censorship/ |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=PEN America |language=en}}

In 2018, the organization filed suit against President Trump for allegedly using the powers of his office to retaliate against unfavorable reporting.{{Cite web |date=2021-03-03 |title=PEN America Lauds Settlement in Press Freedom Lawsuit |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/press-freedom_pen-america-lauds-settlement-press-freedom-lawsuit/6202831.html |access-date=2023-07-20 |website=VOA |language=en}} In 2023, it filed suit against the school district in Escambia County, Florida, over book bans, joined by publisher Penguin Random House, several banned authors, and parents in the district.{{Cite web |last=Chavez |first=Nicole |date=2023-05-17 |title=Penguin Random House, advocates and authors sue Florida school district over book bans |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/us/florida-escambia-county-school-district-book-bans-lawsuit/index.html |access-date=2023-07-20 |website=CNN |language=en}}

{{As of|June 2022|post=,}} PEN America staff announced their intention to unionize. The Los Angeles Times reported that workers unionized with Unit of Work, a venture capitalist startup to help workers unionize, and that PEN America recognized the union the day after it was announced.{{Cite web |last=Dean |first=Sam |date=2022-08-12 |title=The organized labor movement has a new ally: venture capitalists |url=https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-08-12/venture-capital-startup-unit-labor-organizing |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}

PEN America celebrated its centenary in 2022 with an event featuring authors Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Jennifer Finney Boylan, and Dave Eggers; an exhibition at the New York Historical Society;{{Cite web |last=Nawotka {{!}} |first=Ed |title=PEN America Marks 100 Years |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/89933-pen-america-marks-100-years.html |access-date=2023-07-20 |website=PublishersWeekly.com |language=en}} and a large light-projection by the artist Jenny Holzer at the Rockefeller Center.{{Cite web |last=Sutton|first=Benjamin |date=2022-09-16 |title=Jenny Holzer projection takes over Rockefeller Center in support of freedom of expression |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/09/16/jenny-holzer-projection-rockefeller-center-pen-america |access-date=December 24, 2023 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events}}{{Cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=2022-09-13 |title=At PEN America, a Complicated Centennial for Free Speech |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/arts/pen-america-free-speech-rushdie.html |access-date=2023-07-20 |issn=0362-4331}}

In October 2024, longtime CEO Suzanne Nossel announced that she would take a new position, and the organization appointed Summer Lopez and Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf as interim co-CEOs.{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/96383-suzanne-nossel-departs-pen-america.html|title=Suzanne Nossel Departs PEN America|first=Sophia|last=Stewart |website=PublishersWeekly.com}}

The PEN America Board of Trustees is composed of writers, artists, and leaders in the fields of publishing, media, technology, law, finance, human rights, and philanthropy.

Jennifer Finney Boylan, author and LGBTQ rights advocate, became president of PEN America on December 11, 2023,{{Cite web |date=2023-12-11 |title=Author and LGBTQ Rights Advocate Jennifer Finney Boylan Elected President of PEN America |url=https://pen.org/press-release/author-and-lgbtq-rights-advocate-jennifer-finney-boylan-elected-president-of-pen-america/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=PEN America |language=en}} succeeding Ayad Akhtar, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize who was named president December 2, 2020, and Jennifer Egan, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and the 2018 Carnegie Medal for literary excellence, who became president in 2018.{{cite web | title=Ayad Akhtar named new PEN American president | website=ABC News | date=2020-09-08 | url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/ayad-akhtar-named-pen-american-president-72881656 | access-date=2020-12-02}} Other members of the Board of Trustees Executive Committee are: Executive Vice President Tracy Higgins, Treasurer Markus Dohle, Vice Presidents Marie Arana, Dinaw Mengestu, and Marvin S. Putnam, and Executive Committee Members Peter Barbey, Patricia Fili-Krushel, and Michael Pietsch.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/current-board-of-trustees/|title=Current Board of Trustees|publisher=PEN America|website=pen.org| date=September 20, 2016 |access-date=October 15, 2018}}

Additional trustees are: Ayad Akhtar, Luis Alberto Urrea, John Chao, Susan Choi, Roxanne Donovan, Patricia Duff,Tom Healy, Elizabeth Hemmerdinger, Linda E. Johnson, Zachary Karabell, Franklin Leonard, Margo Lowy, Ken Miller,Paul Muldoon, Lynn Nottage, George Packer, Jodi Picoult, Alix Ritchie, Anya Salama, Richard Sarnoff, Andrew Solomon, Suzy Wahba, Tara Westover, and Jamie Wolf. Ex-Officio Trustees are Krystyna Poray Goddu and Allison Markin Powell.

The Interim Co-Chief Executive Officers of PEN America are Summer Lopez and Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf.

PEN America holds multiple events in the United States throughout the year with the goal of celebrating literature in multiple forms. Many feature prominent authors who appear at festivals and on panel discussions, give lectures, and are featured at PEN America's Authors' Evenings. As a part of its work, PEN America also gives recognition to emerging writers, recognizing them through PEN America's Literary Awards or bringing them to new audiences at public events. Among them are: Hermione Hoby, Morgan Jerkins, Crystal Hana Kim, Alice Sola Kim, Lisa Ko, Layli Long Soldier, Carmen Maria Machado, Darnell L. Moore, Alexis Okeowo, Helen Oyeyemi, Tommy Pico, Jenny Zhang, and Ibi Zoboi.

The PEN World Voices Festival is a week-long series of events in New York City hosted by PEN America each spring. It is the largest international literary festival in the United States, and the only one with a human rights focus. The festival was founded by Salman Rushdie in the aftermath of September 11 Attacks, with the aim of broadening channels of dialogue between the United States and the world.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/world-voices-festival/|title=PEN World Voices Festival|publisher=PEN America|website=pen.org|date=December 2, 2014 |access-date=October 15, 2018}}

Notable guests have included: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Samantha Bee, Giannina Braschi, Carrie Brownstein, Ron Chernow, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Teju Cole, E. L. Doctorow, Dave Eggers, Roxane Gay, Masha Gessen, John Irving, Marlon James, Saeed Jones, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ottessa Moshfegh, Hasan Minaj, Sean Penn, Cecile Richards, Salman Rushdie, Gabourey Sidibe, Patti Smith, Zadie Smith, Andrew Solomon, Pia Tafdrup, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Colm Toibin, Amor Towles, and Colson Whitehead.{{Cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=2018-02-27 |title=Hillary Clinton to Speak at PEN World Voices Festival |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/arts/hillary-clinton-pen-world-voices-festival.html |access-date=2022-08-14 |issn=0362-4331}}

{{See also|List of PEN literary awards|PEN American Center inactive awards}}

The PEN America Literary Awards annually honor outstanding voices in literature across genres, including fiction, poetry, drama, science and writing, essays, biography, and children's literature. PEN America confers 11 awards, fellowships, grants, and prizes each year, presenting nearly US$350,000 to writers and translators.

As of 2018, the US$75,000 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award is the top award given by PEN America,{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/literary-awards/awards/|title=Awards - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}} and among the largest literary prizes in the United States.{{Cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-pen-75000-book-prize-20160720-snap-story.html|title=PEN America launches $75,000 book prize, one of the country's biggest |last=Schaub|first=Michael|website=Los Angeles Times| date=July 20, 2016 |access-date=October 15, 2018}} Among other awards conferred are the $25,000 PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel, the $25,000 PEN/Bingham Award for a Debut Short Story Collection, and the $10,000 PEN Open Book Award for new books by writers of color.

The PEN America Literary Gala in New York and PEN America Los Angeles Gala are annual events celebrating free expression and the literary arts. These events include tributes and calls to action to audiences of authors, screenwriters, producers, executives, philanthropists, actors, and other devotees of the written word. Honorees have included Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood. Celebrated writers serve as Literary Hosts for the events.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/literary-gala/|title=Literary Gala - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/litfest-gala/|title=LitFest Gala - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}}

Founded in 1971, the PEN Prison Writing Program provides hundreds of inmates across the country with writing resources and audiences for their work. The program sponsors an annual writing contest, publishes a free writing handbook for prisoners, provides one-on-one mentoring to inmates whose writing shows promise, and seeks to bring inmates' work to the public through literary events, readings and publications. PEN America also provides assistance to other prison writing initiatives around the country and offers a Writing for Justice Fellowship for writers inside and outside of prison seeking to advance the conversation around the challenges of mass incarceration through creative expression.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/prison-writing/|title=Prison & Justice Writing - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}}

The PEN Writers' Emergency Fund assists professional writers in acute, emergency financial crisis.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/writers-emergency-fund/|title=Writers' Emergency Fund - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}} PEN America Membership committees focus on the interests of literary professionals in different fields and include the Translation Committee and the Children and Young Adult Book Authors Committee.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/current-members/translator-resources/|title=Translation Committee - PEN America|website=pen.org| date=September 20, 2016 |access-date=October 15, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/current-members/childrens-and-young-adult-book-authors/|title=Children's and Young Adult Book Authors - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}} The Emerging Voices Fellowship is a literary mentorship that aims to provide new writers who are isolated from the literary establishment with the tools, skills, and knowledge they need to launch a professional writing career.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/emerging-voices-fellowship/|title=Emerging Voices Fellowship - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}} The DREAMing Out Loud program helps aspiring migrant writers.{{Cite web |date=2018-04-06 |title=DREAMing Out Loud: Visualizing the Stories of Student DREAMers |url=https://pen.org/dreamers-writing-out-loud/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=PEN America |language=en}} PEN America also has offered workshops that nurture the writing skills of domestic workers, taxi drivers, street vendors, and others wage earners.

PEN America has several periodic publications. They include the Prison Writing Awards Anthology featuring winning entries from the annual contest for incarcerated authors, and PEN America Best Debut Short Stories, a yearly anthology of fiction by the recipients of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/publications/|title=Publications|publisher=PEN America|website=pen.org| date=December 28, 2017 |access-date=October 15, 2018}}

PEN America's free expression programs defend writers and journalists and protect free expression rights in the United States and around the world. This work includes research and reports on topical issues, advocacy internationally and in the United States, and campaigns on policy issues and on behalf of individual writers and journalists under threat.

After 2020, PEN America increasingly focused on tracking book bans,{{Cite magazine |date=2023-04-20 |title=New Report Finds That Book Bans Have Reached Their Highest Levels Yet |url=https://time.com/6273086/book-bans-surge-pen-america-report/ |access-date=2023-07-20 |magazine=Time |language=en}} including with its annual Banned in the USA report{{Cite web |date=2023-04-20 |title=2023 Banned Books Update: Banned in the USA |url=https://pen.org/report/banned-in-the-usa-state-laws-supercharge-book-suppression-in-schools/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=PEN America |language=en}} and educational censorship in public schools and higher education, including "educational gag order" bills.{{Cite web |date=2021-11-08 |title=Educational Gag Orders: Legislative Restrictions on the Freedom to Read, Learn, and Teach |url=https://pen.org/report/educational-gag-orders/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=PEN America |language=en}} In 2023, PEN America, along with publisher Penguin Random House and several banned authors, and parents, filed suit against the Escambia County School District, claiming that book bans violate Constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection under the law.{{Cite news |last=Nguyen |first=Sophia |date=2023-05-18 |title=PEN America and Penguin Random House sue Florida school district over book bans |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/05/17/pen-america-penguin-random-house-lawsuit/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |issn=0190-8286}} The organization also hosts regular Free Speech Advocacy Institutes to train young people to advocate for free speech.{{Cite web |date=2022-07-28 |title=Next Gen PEN America |url=https://pen.org/issue/next-gen-pen-america/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=PEN America |language=en}}

PEN America's work is sustained advocacy on behalf of individual writers and journalists who are being persecuted because of their work. With help from its members and supporters, PEN America carries out campaigns to ensure the freedom, safety, and ability to write and publish without constraint. Advocacy is conducted from PEN America's Washington, D.C., office, as well as through national and international campaigns, events, reports, and delegations. The organization publishes an index of threats to writers{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Porter |date=2023-04-27 |title=The New Freedom To Write Index: 311 Imprisoned |url=https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/04/the-new-freedom-to-write-index-311-imprisoned/ |access-date=2023-07-20 |website=Publishing Perspectives |language=en-US}} and gives out an annual Freedom to Write award.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-15 |title=Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi to receive PEN America's Freedom to Write Award |url=https://apnews.com/article/narges-mohammadi-pen-america-iranian-2d8011ba97ec8972ca2bba112dcbcb89 |access-date=2023-07-20 |website=AP News |language=en}} PEN America also focuses on countries and regions where free expression is under particular challenge, including China, Myanmar, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Central Asia.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/writers-at-risk/|title=Writers At Risk - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}}

PEN America monitors the freedom of the press and safety of journalists in the United States and internationally. PEN America also focuses on issues of fraudulent news and media literacy, and has produced an in-depth report, "Faking News: Fraudulent News and the Fight for Truth", alongside its "News Consumers Bill of Rights and Responsibilities."{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/research-resources/faking-news/|title=Faking News: Fraudulent News and the Fight for Truth|website=pen.org| date=October 12, 2017 |access-date=2018-10-15}} Recent work focuses on how to fight disinformation ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with particular focus on Florida, Texas, and Arizona.{{Cite web |date=2016-09-20 |title=About Us - What Is PEN America |url=https://pen.org/about-us/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=PEN America |language=en}}

PEN America has a focus on issues surrounding free speech at colleges and universities and seeks to raise awareness of the First Amendment and foster constructive dialogue that upholds the free speech rights of all on campus.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/advocacy-campaign/campus-speech/|title=Campus Speech - PEN America|website=pen.org|access-date=October 15, 2018}} This work includes the "PEN America Principles on Campus Free Speech", and the report "And Campus for All: Diversity, Inclusion, and Freedom of Speech at U.S. Universities".{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/and-campus-for-all-diversity-inclusion-and-free-speech-at-u-s-universities/|title=And Campus for All: Diversity, Inclusion, and Free Speech at U.S. Universities - PEN America|website=pen.org| date=October 17, 2016 |access-date=October 15, 2018}}

In April 2018, PEN America launched the Online Harassment Field Manual in an effort to aid writers and journalists who must navigate online spaces by providing resources, tools, and tips to help them respond safely and effectively to incidents of online harassment and hateful speech.{{Cite web|url=https://onlineharassmentfieldmanual.pen.org/best-practices-for-allies-and-witnesses|title=Online Harassment Field Manual|website=onlineharassmentfieldmanual.pen.org| date=April 13, 2018 |language=en-US|access-date=October 15, 2018}} PEN America also leads workshops to equip writers, journalists, and all those active online with tools and tactics to defend against hateful speech and trolling.

The Artists at Risk Connection is an international hub of more than 800 organizations working to protect artistic freedom around the world by improving access to resources for artists at risk, raising awareness of the threats, and enhancing connections among supporters of artistic freedom. This program extends support to artists of all kinds, encompassing writers, cartoonists, visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and performance artists, as well as other individuals who produce significant creative output.{{Cite web|url=https://artistsatriskconnection.org/|title=ARC – Artists at Risk Connection|website=artistsatriskconnection.org|language=en-US|access-date=October 15, 2018}}

{{see also|Accusations of United States complicity in Israeli war crimes in the Israel-Hamas war}}

Several authors requested that their names be removed from PEN referring to dissatisfaction with the organization's position regarding the Gaza war; among them were Camonghne Felix nominated for the Jean Stein award, Eugenia Leigh a poetry finalist and Ghassan Zeineddine nominated for a short story. A letter signed by Naomi Klein, Lorrie Moore, and dozens of others protested that PEN had not “launched any substantial coordinated support” for Palestinians.

Chris Hedges reports in his The Chris Hedges Report website in March 2024, "[PEN's] refusal to condemn the deaths in Gaza and Israel’s targeted killings of writers, academics and journalists, has seen numerous writers withdraw from the annual PEN World Voices Festival in New York and Los Angeles, scheduled for April and May."

PEN America canceled the 2024 World Voices festival and Literary Awards after 28 of the 61 nominated authors withdrew their books from consideration in the annual ceremony as they condemned America for failing to strongly condemn the genocide in Palestine.

{{cite news |last1=Oladipo |first1=Gloria |title=PEN America cancels festival after authors drop out in support of Gaza |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/26/pen-america-world-voices-festival-cancelled |agency=The Guardian |date=26 April 2024}}

The organization spoke out on a wide range of topics related to the war and its reverberations for free expression and pledged significant support to Palestinian writers, including a dedicated fund initially set at $100,000, to be administered by the PEN Emergency Fund, to support writers affected by the war.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/free-expression-amidst-the-war-between-israel-and-hamas/|title=Free Expression & the War Between Israel and Hamas|website=PEN America}}

Alex N. Press reports in Jacobin, May 1, 2024, "'PEN America management’s recent actions reflect what is becoming an appalling pattern of blatant disrespect towards its unionized staff,' said the union in a statement." And "The union has also filed two unfair labor practices (ULP) against PEN America with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The ULPs concern workers’ just-cause and labor-management committee proposals: workers say the company engaged in 'regressive bargaining' with both proposals, meaning they offered less than they had previously, after bringing on Tanya Khan from Kauff McGuire & Margolis, a union-busting law firm, late last year."

The following month, PEN America reached an agreement with its union.{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/95603-pen-america-union-management-reach-tentative-agreement.html|title=PEN America Union, Management Reach Tentative Agreement|first=Sophia|last=Stewart |website=PublishersWeekly.com}}

• PEN International
• English PEN
• PEN Center USA
• PEN Canada
• Sydney PEN
• PEN Open Book Award
• PEN World Voices

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://pen.org/ PEN America]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061011182043/http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1064 PEN Events Audio Archive]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061011182055/http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1303 PEN Podcasts]
• [https://www.pen-international.org/ PEN International]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20030913024527/http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/pen.html PEN American Center archives] at Princeton University [https://rbsc.princeton.edu/collections/pen-american-center-records Special Collections | Princeton University Library]
• [https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/pen-america-self-destructs/ The Chris Hedges Report]

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Category:1922 establishments in New York City

America

Category:American writers' organizations

Category:Culture of New York City

Category:Freedom of expression organizations

Category:Freedom of speech in the United States

Category:Human rights organizations based in the United States

Category:Organizations based in New York City

Category:Organizations established in 1922