PEN America

In the face of authoritarian resurgence around the world, PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index documents cases of writers and public intellectuals who have been unjustly locked up for their exercise of free expression. At least 277 of them (in 36 countries) were in jail last year.

“Abel Lescay is a brave and talented musician who should never have been in jail in the first place (…) His sentencing is a very worrisome development in the Cuban government’s relentless crackdown on artistic expression…”

The effort to censor anti-LGBTQ identities is expanding rapidly.

PEN America urges the school board not to pass Resolution No. 21-12, “Resolution Opposing the Teaching of Critical Race Theory.”

In the month since the release of PEN America’s report on the topic, state lawmakers introduced 12 new bills, bringing the total to a staggering 66 educational gag orders for the year in 26 states, 12 of which have passed into law.

Between January and September 2021, 24 legislatures across the United States introduced 54 separate bills intended to restrict teaching and training in K-12 schools, higher education, and state agencies and institutions. The majority of these bills target discussions of race, racism, gender, and American history.

The PEN Children’s and Young Adult Books Committee is responding to recent efforts to ban books and intimidate teachers and librarians with a new conversation series called “PEN Pals.” This series of articles gives voice to the challenged creators of books for children and young adults through an exchange of nuanced conversations that illuminate today’s issues.

PEN America is publishing a series of pieces about the harm online abuse poses to free speech – but also what Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies can do to blunt its worst effects.