About PEN America
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pen.org
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide.
11 months ago
PEN America Awards
Announcing the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards Winners
Announcing the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards Winners
pen.org
1 month ago
This week, Murray Hill came to Times Square to host the PEN America Literary Awards at @thetownhallnyc. We caught up with the Somebody Somewhere star before the ceremony to find our what he's reading — and what he's been writing. @murrayshowbiz's debut memoir Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man is out October 6, 2026. #PENLitAwards #literaryawards #redcarpet
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This week, Murray Hill came to Times Square to host the PEN America Literary Awards at @thetownhallnyc. We caught up with the Somebody Somewhere star before the ceremony to find our what he's reading — and what he's been writing. @murrayshowbiz's debut memoir Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man is out October 6, 2026. #PENLitAwards #literaryawards #redcarpet
TikTokpenamerica
498 views1 month ago
Film producer Jason Blum and author-bookseller Ann Patchett to receive PEN America awards
Film producer Jason Blum and author-bookseller Ann Patchett to receive PEN America awards
apnews.com
5 months ago
Top videos
Book bans are just the beginning! Project 2025 is poised to curtail free expression using the same scare tactics and chilling effects that the measures in states like Florida, Texas, and Iowa have used to produce record numbers of book bans. Should librarians be treated as criminals for protecting free expression? | PEN America
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Book bans are just the beginning! Project 2025 is poised to curtail free expression using the same scare tactics and chilling effects that the measures in states like Florida, Texas, and Iowa have used to produce record numbers of book bans. Should librarians be treated as criminals for protecting free expression? | PEN America
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6.8K viewsDec 9, 2024
For Fordham student Lauren Payne, issues in higher education stem from “Free expression for some but not free expression for all.” This Spring, PEN America interviewed 11 undergraduate students on free expression in higher education. Find out more here. https://pen.org/college-students-on-free-expression/. | PEN America
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For Fordham student Lauren Payne, issues in higher education stem from “Free expression for some but not free expression for all.” This Spring, PEN America interviewed 11 undergraduate students on free expression in higher education. Find out more here. https://pen.org/college-students-on-free-expression/. | PEN America
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209 views8 months ago
Celebrate literary excellence at the live, virtual 2021 PEN America Literary Awards ceremony! Register for free today. | PEN America
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Celebrate literary excellence at the live, virtual 2021 PEN America Literary Awards ceremony! Register for free today. | PEN America
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64.1K viewsMar 17, 2021
PEN America Events
100 writers. 35 events. 20 countries. The 2024 Pen World Voices Festival is here! 📖 For the love of books, join us to celebrate great international writing and the strength of powerful storytelling from May 8 - 11 in New York, and May 11 - 18 in Los Angeles. Find out more at pen.org/festival #penworldvoices #festival #fortheloveofbooks | PEN America
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100 writers. 35 events. 20 countries. The 2024 Pen World Voices Festival is here! 📖 For the love of books, join us to celebrate great international writing and the strength of powerful storytelling from May 8 - 11 in New York, and May 11 - 18 in Los Angeles. Find out more at pen.org/festival #penworldvoices #festival #fortheloveofbooks | PEN America
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200 viewsApr 10, 2024
NYC! From May 11 - 14, Greenwich Village will turn into a literary hub with the PEN World Voices Festival as writers from all over the world will gather for vibrant conversations, performances, and events that celebrate the power of storytelling. Tickets are on sale now! #PENWorldVoices | PEN America
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NYC! From May 11 - 14, Greenwich Village will turn into a literary hub with the PEN World Voices Festival as writers from all over the world will gather for vibrant conversations, performances, and events that celebrate the power of storytelling. Tickets are on sale now! #PENWorldVoices | PEN America
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5.1K viewsApr 28, 2022
PEN America launches a US safety program for authors facing harassment - AOL
PEN America launches a US safety program for authors facing harassment - AOL
aol.co.uk
1 month ago
Book bans are just the beginning! Project 2025 is poised to curtail free expression using the same scare tactics and chilling effects that the measures in states like Florida, Texas, and Iowa have used to produce record numbers of book bans. Should librarians be treated as criminals for protecting free expression? | PEN America
2:00
Book bans are just the beginning! Project 2025 is poised to curtail free expression using the same scare tactics and chilling effects that the measures in states like Florida, Texas, and Iowa have used to produce record numbers of book bans. Should librarians be treated as criminals for protecting free expression? | PEN America
6.8K viewsDec 9, 2024
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For Fordham student Lauren Payne, issues in higher education stem from “Free expression for some but not free expression for all.” This Spring, PEN America interviewed 11 undergraduate students on free expression in higher education. Find out more here. https://pen.org/college-students-on-free-expression/. | PEN America
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For Fordham student Lauren Payne, issues in higher education stem from “Free expression for some but not free expression for all.” This Spring, PEN America interviewed 11 undergraduate students on free expression in higher education. Find out more here. https://pen.org/college-students-on-free-expression/. | PEN America
209 views8 months ago
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Celebrate literary excellence at the live, virtual 2021 PEN America Literary Awards ceremony! Register for free today. | PEN America
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Celebrate literary excellence at the live, virtual 2021 PEN America Literary Awards ceremony! Register for free today. | PEN America
64.1K viewsMar 17, 2021
FacebookPEN America
Online abuse, threats, harassment, and other intimidation tactics are extremely effective in undermining free expression — causing significant physical and psychological harm, leading to self-censorship and silencing. Writers and their allies — including authors, journalists, scholars, and librarians — are targeted for their professions and their identities, particularly if they are women, people of color, LGBTQ , have a disability, or belong to religious or ethnic minorities. For more, check ou
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Online abuse, threats, harassment, and other intimidation tactics are extremely effective in undermining free expression — causing significant physical and psychological harm, leading to self-censorship and silencing. Writers and their allies — including authors, journalists, scholars, and librarians — are targeted for their professions and their identities, particularly if they are women, people of color, LGBTQ , have a disability, or belong to religious or ethnic minorities. For more, check ou
510 views7 months ago
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Write. Read. Relax. Repeat. That's what we're taking away from the writers' resolutions shared with us by authors Cleyvis Natera, Alejandro Heredia and Jinwoo Chong — three of the Literary Hosts who joined us for PEN America’s New Year New Books at Poets House on January 14th. Thanks to all of the 150 writers, readers, and members of the literary community who joined us for another great event to support books, ideas, and the freedom to read. Learn more about PEN America membership at: https://p
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Write. Read. Relax. Repeat. That's what we're taking away from the writers' resolutions shared with us by authors Cleyvis Natera, Alejandro Heredia and Jinwoo Chong — three of the Literary Hosts who joined us for PEN America’s New Year New Books at Poets House on January 14th. Thanks to all of the 150 writers, readers, and members of the literary community who joined us for another great event to support books, ideas, and the freedom to read. Learn more about PEN America membership at: https://p
274 views3 months ago
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Watch P!nk and Amanda Gorman as they join PEN America to discuss the importance of standing up for the freedom to read! 🗣️ ❌ 📚 | PEN America
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Watch P!nk and Amanda Gorman as they join PEN America to discuss the importance of standing up for the freedom to read! 🗣️ ❌ 📚 | PEN America
513.4K viewsAug 13, 2024
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Announcing the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards Winners
Announcing the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards Winners
1 month ago
pen.org
1:47
"The first 100 days of the Trump administration amount to a five-alarm fire for free speech," says Summer Lopez, PEN America's Interim Co-CEO and Chief Program Officer, Free Expression. Read our new report and join us in calling on Congress to speak up for free expression at: https://pen.org/report/trump-administration-100-days/ | PEN America
347 viewsApr 30, 2025
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PEN America is thrilled to announce the 2026 Literary Grant Winners! Recognizing oral history, young adult literature, migration narratives, and translation, these works-in-progress illuminate important stories and are sure to carry a lasting literary impact. Among the winning projects were works translated from Wolof and Kven, a middle grade fantasy novel about a winged lion cub and a girl seeking freedom, and a collection of multilingual poems by an incarcerated immigrant writer. To celebrate
1.2K views5 months ago
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PEN America's World Voices Festival returns to NY and LA from April 30-May 3! In an era of censorship, this gathering of 85 writers from 35 countries is a potent reminder that books drive culture and identity, while empowering and transforming our lives. We invite you to join us at PEN World Voices as we celebrate great writing and the power of uncensored storytelling. Find out more about this year's sensational selection of free and paid events at: https://worldvoices.pen.org/ | PEN America
311 viewsApr 8, 2025
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PEN America 2024
1.7K viewsMay 22, 2024
YouTubePEN America
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Spanning fiction, poetry, essay, translation, and more, the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists are juried by panels of esteemed, award-winning authors, editors, translators, and critics. See — and shop — the longlisted titles at: https://bookshop.org/lists/2026-pen-america-literary-awards-longlists #PENLitAwards | PEN America
482 views5 months ago
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PEN America: Protecting the Power of Words
4K viewsMay 23, 2023
YouTubePEN America
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The 61st annual PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony comes to Town Hall, NYC on May 8! This year’s ceremony will be hosted by two-time Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist and author Tamron Hall. See the finalists, learn more about this year's performances—and get your tickets now!—at: https://pen.org/event/2025-pen-america-literary-awards-ceremony/ | PEN America
32.3K viewsApr 21, 2025
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The 2020 PEN America Literary Awards Winners
Mar 2, 2020
pen.org
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At the end of February, PEN America led an international and immigrant writers delegation to Minneapolis, presenting public conversations on the role of writers in response to the massive deployment of ICE immigration agents, and the protests and outrage over the raids and violence that followed. Here, Burhan Sönmez, President of PEN International and Dinaw Mengestu, President of PEN America discuss how this weekend of solidarity and reflection reinforced our organizations' shared belief in forg
297 views2 months ago
TikTokpenamerica
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Bestselling author Jodi Picoult’s books are among the most frequently banned in the U.S. In this video, she explains why PEN America leading the fight for the freedom to read — and why censorship is accelerating. Stand with writers. Protect free expression. | PEN America
8.8K views6 months ago
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Stories help children learn who they are and how to relate to others. That’s why books about identity, friendship, and empathy matter, and why it’s so alarming when they’re banned. PEN America members are standing up for authors like Taye Diggs and the readers who need these stories most. Join a community committed to protecting diverse voices today — and for the future. Become a member of PEN America. | PEN America
18.4K views5 months ago
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“For the last 20 years, I was trying to write horror and fantasy, but it wasn’t until…I published Free Lunch, which is about poverty, domestic violence and home instability, which I dealt with all through middle school, and I got this reaction from librarians and teachers being like, 'there are so many kids who are going through this. They needed this kind of book,'" said author Rex Ogle at this year's PEN America Annual General Meeting. "It’s more important now than ever for kids to be able to
701 views4 months ago
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📢 In the 2022–23 school year, PEN America recorded 3,362 instances of book bans in U.S. public schools and libraries! Click to learn the facts and help protect the right to read! | PEN America
26.5K viewsApr 11, 2024
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Join us for the 60th annual PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony. Save the date for APRIL 29th at The Town Hall in NYC. This year, we will recognize the finest fiction, poetry, essays, nonfiction, and works in translation published in 2023. Find out more at https://pen.org/event/2024-pen-america-literary-awards-ceremony/ | PEN America
268 viewsMar 29, 2024
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“We have been astonished to see books ripped off the shelves and students forced into the middle of a fight they didn’t ask for or deserve. All of us, especially those of us who make our living in the literary world, are called upon to defend against book bans and legislation that suppresses new voices.” - Michael Connelly | PEN America
21.8K viewsDec 15, 2023
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Today it’s words. Tomorrow? Entire subjects. Help us draw the line on censorship. Support PEN America. A growing list of words (more than 350) and materials has been scrubbed from government websites and documents in an attempt to remove all references not only to diversity, equity and inclusion, but also to climate change, vaccines, and a host of other topics. | PEN America
18.1K views4 months ago
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PEN America on Reels
644K viewsJan 17, 2024
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📢 In the 2022–23 school year, PEN America recorded 3,362 instances of book bans in U.S. public schools and libraries! Visit our site to learn more share your thoughts in the comments. | PEN America
242K views10 months ago
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🚨PEN America has compiled a list of more than 250 words and phrases reportedly no longer considered acceptable by the Trump administration, from “abortion,” to “women,” and including “disability,” “elderly,” “Native American” and, unsurprisingly, the “Gulf of Mexico.” “We’re now living in a country where the government has decided that a sweeping array of everyday terms will now be erased and forbidden in government agencies, websites, or even scientific research proposals. These prohibitions o
3.5K views10 months ago
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Tyler Perry presented the 2024 PEN/Benenson Courage Award to mother-daughter Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, whose lives were upended in 2020 by relentless threats ignited by President Trump and his allies, who falsely accused the women of passing fraudulent ballots. (In fact, Freeman passed her daughter a mint.) The women were officially cleared by Georgia authorities after a yearslong investigation. Despite facing relentless harassment, they testified before
612 viewsJul 12, 2024
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Incarcerated writers will be able to connect with literary world through new PEN America site
5 months ago
seattletimes.com
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Books that cover sensitive or controversial topics often serve as valuable educational tools that foster empathy, understanding, and social awareness for both students and adults. 💡📖 | PEN America
175.6K viewsMar 12, 2024
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