Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #penamerica, aggregated by home.social.
Josh Cook on Bluesky: "Others are making more important points about this incredible piece, but I'm reminded of PEN's Backlash report, another vibes based piece on potential chilling effects of antiracism and other advocacy on free speech. PEN is treating overtly bad faith actors in good faith & doing real damage"
https://jewishcurrents.org/what-pen-america-got-wrong-about-antisemitism-in-publishing
Phil Klay takes over at PEN America amid Israel-Hamas war rifts
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Prize-winning author Phil Klay has been named the…
#EuropeSays #Headlines #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Israel #Israel-Hamaswar #PENAmerica #PhilKlay
https://www.europesays.com/iran/298377/
https://www.europesays.com/iran/298377/ Phil Klay takes over at PEN America amid Israel-Hamas war rifts #Israel #IsraelHamasWar #PENAmerica #PhilKlay
Prize-winning author Phil Klay takes over at PEN America amid Israel-Hamas war rifts
NEW YORK (AP) — Prize-winning author Phil Klay has been named the new president of PEN America, taking…
#EuropeSays #Headlines #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Israel #DinawMengestu #freeexpression #Israeliwriters #Jewishwriters #palestinians #PENAmerica #PhilKlay
https://www.europesays.com/iran/296855/
https://www.europesays.com/iran/296855/ Prize-winning author Phil Klay takes over at PEN America amid Israel-Hamas war rifts #DinawMengestu #FreeExpression #Israel #IsraeliWriters #JewishWriters #palestinians #PENAmerica #PhilKlay
The outgoing president of PEN America resigned due to the hypocrisy of the US's most prominent 'free-speech' group, likening it to the Writers’ Union in the USSR, an institution empowered by the state to project a kind of national and moral superiority, but unable to stand dissent of any kind.
#PENAmerica #FreeSpeech #Palestine
https://www.equator.org/articles/inside-pen-america-dinaw-mengestu
PEN America’s “Silent Moratorium” Prompts Very Loud Criticism
PEN America president, defending Israel’s critics, resigns after report warns of threats to Jewish authors
The president of PEN America resigned over the weekend in protest of a report on boycotts targeting Jewish…
#Israel #News #PENAmerica
https://www.europesays.com/3128414/
https://www.europesays.com/3128414/ PEN America president, defending Israel’s critics, resigns after report warns of threats to Jewish authors #Israel #PENAmerica
PEN America president, defending Israel’s critics, resigns after report warns of threats to Jewish authors
The president of PEN America resigned over the weekend in protest of a report on boycotts targeting Jewish…
#EuropeSays #Headlines #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Israel #PENAmerica
https://www.europesays.com/iran/205148/
https://www.europesays.com/iran/205148/ PEN America president, defending Israel’s critics, resigns after report warns of threats to Jewish authors #Israel #PENAmerica
PEN America’s Report on Jewish Writers Divides Literary World as President Resigns In Protest
#News #PoliticsNews #Penamerica
"Inside the new political screening that’s stalling #NIH grants."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01924-8
"Mandatory reviews by [political appointees] and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo."
Here's the Nature list of "disfavored terms" that trigger slow-walking and political scrutiny of grant applications.
https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-026-01924-8/52836226
Also see the similar list of "banned words" compiled last year by #PENAmerica (apparently last updated Dec 2025).
https://pen.org/banned-words-list/
#Censorship #DefendResearch #Funding #Takedowns #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
In 2022, Atwood & publisher had a fire-proof copy made of her "The Handmaid's Tale". After trying & failing to burn it (pictured), Sotheby's auctioned it off for $130K with money going to PEN America (founded 1922), to fight censorship, book bans, etc.
The book's been banned by entire countries!
She said she stopped writing it several times bc it seemed so far-fetched(!)
#TheHandmaidsTale #MargaretAtwood #PENAmerica #PEN #USA #censorship #BookBans #TX #PA #FL #OK #GOP
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/margaret-atwood-tried-and-failed-to-burn-copy-handmaids-tale-unburnable-fireproof-180980223/
Trump's FCC is eyeing warnings for trans TV content. Civil rights groups are pushing back
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/trump-fcc-transgender-warnings
Trump's FCC is eyeing warnings for trans TV content. Civil rights groups are pushing back
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/trump-fcc-transgender-warnings
New PEN America Report Finds Nonfiction Increasingly Targeted by Book Banners in U.S. Schools
“The content of these books that are disappearing speaks volumes about both the stories, identities, and facts that are being suppressed, and about the political and cultural attack on public education across the U.S.,” the report states.
The post New PEN America Report Finds Nonfiction Increasingly Targeted by Book Banners in U.S. Schools appeared first on Publishing Perspectives.
https://publishingperspectives.com/2026/05/new-pen-america-report-finds-nonfiction-increasingly-targeted-by-book-banners-in-u-s-schools/
BOOK CHALLENGES HIT UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS, GRIPPING LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS
Thousands of book titles are being challenged in US libraries and schools. Learn why and which states are most affected by these censorship attempts.
#BookBans, #LibraryCensorship, #SchoolLibraries, #FreedomToRead, #PENAmerica
https://newsletter.tf/us-book-bans-rise-in-libraries-schools/
Book challenges in US schools and libraries have reached record highs, with over 6,870 instances recorded in the last academic year. This is a significant increase from previous years.
#BookBans, #LibraryCensorship, #SchoolLibraries, #FreedomToRead, #PENAmerica
https://newsletter.tf/us-book-bans-rise-in-libraries-schools/
Fired for refusing to remove LGBTQ+ books, Tennessee librarian says she’d do it again
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/states/fired-tn-library-director-speaks
Fired for refusing to remove LGBTQ+ books, Tennessee librarian says she’d do it again
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/states/fired-tn-library-director-speaks
Tennessee board fires library director who refused to comply with LGBTQ+ book purge
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/states/tennessee-librarian-fired-lgbtq-books
Tennessee board fires library director who refused to comply with LGBTQ+ book purge
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/states/tennessee-librarian-fired-lgbtq-books
Tennessee library board meets to weigh firing librarian who refused LGBTQ+ book purge
Tennessee library board meets to weigh firing librarian who refused LGBTQ+ book purge
Love this: "The Forbidden Words Quilt, led by Lorraine Woodruff-Long and Patricia Hickey, is a community quilt project launched in August 2025 and completed in 2026 with contributions from 195 quilters from all 50 U.S. states and D.C. and 5 countries. The quilt features 384 words and phrases identified by #PENAmerica.org [@penamerica] that are among the growing list of words being scrubbed from government websites and documents and flagged for review by federal agencies."
https://mailchi.mp/quiltinginthefog/july2024-6423127#mctoc1
h/t @lschiff
#BannedWords #Censorship #DefendResearch #Quilts #Quilting #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
CECOT story pulled by Bari Weiss gets viewed anyway thanks to Canadian streaming service
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/cecot-story-goes-viral-online
CECOT story pulled by Bari Weiss gets viewed anyway thanks to Canadian streaming service
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/cecot-story-goes-viral-online
Tennessee whistleblower says library board chair sought private data as part of state's book purge
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/tennessee-library-books-purge
Tennessee whistleblower says library board chair sought private data as part of state's book purge
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/tennessee-library-books-purge
North Carolina county dissolves library board for refusing to toss book about a trans kid
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/north-carolina-library-dissolved-transgender
North Carolina county dissolves library board for refusing to toss book about a trans kid
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/north-carolina-library-dissolved-transgender
Freedom to Read Advocates Sound Alarm on Plan to Review Library Collections
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett demand that public libraries review their collections for “age-appropriateness” and for compliance with a controversial Trump executive order on gender identity.
https://publishingperspectives.com/2025/11/freedom-to-read-advocates-sound-alarm-on-plan-to-review-library-collections/
#EveryLibrary #JohnChrastka #PENAmerica #Tennessee #TreHargett
Southern states ban transgender books from YA and children's sections in libraries
Southern states ban transgender books from YA and children's sections in libraries
New Florida Curriculum on Communism is a “Dangerous Recasting” of McCarthyism – PEN America
New Florida Curriculum on Communism is a “Dangerous Recasting” of McCarthyism
Education Should Champion Diverse Perspectives, Not Impose a Rigid Set of Beliefs
Educational Censorship U.S. Free Expression
November 17, 2025
(MIAMI)— PEN America today criticized Florida’s new social studies standards that established a unit on “The History of Communism” for grades 6-12, calling it a “dangerous recasting” of McCarthyism as patriotism.
PEN America Florida Director William Johnson said: “This new unit is a dangerous recasting of McCarthyism as patriotism and dissent as ‘un-American.’ Florida’s new standards impose a single, rigid set of beliefs such as criticizing communism, when education should champion the exploration of diverse perspectives. A classroom should be a place where ideas meet, not where ideology reigns.”
The Florida Department of Education, which adopted the standards last week, had said the new unit on communism was a response to a “resurgence of communist ideologies across the United States and throughout the world,” noting “it is more important than ever for students to understand the catastrophic failures and human suffering caused by communist regimes.”
Historians quoted in the Tampa Bay Times called this new standard “skewed,” “highly biased,” and reflecting a resurgence of Cold War-era propaganda.
The new social studies standards stem from state Senate Bill 1264, “History of Communism,” passed in 2024. PEN America has described bills like this one as “delineating what viewpoints must be taught in such a manner as to potentially restrict educators’ professional discretion, and impose an ideological constraint on the freedom to learn.” Given Governor DeSantis’s prior statements about the “evils of communism,” these standards are likely to chill the speech of educators and compel them to only discuss certain viewpoints.
In 2023, the state Board of Education approved African American history standards that required educators to teach that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” The standards were widely criticized as a defense of slavery.
Editor’s Note: The featured image at top by WP AI.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: New Florida Curriculum on Communism is a “Dangerous Recasting” of McCarthyism – PEN America
#communism #curriculum #dangerous #educationalCensorship #florida #mccarthyism #noRigidBeliefs #notDiverse #penAmerica #socialStudies #uSFreeExpression
Book bans have expanded, using other techniques like 'do not buy' lists, books mislabeled as 'explicit', etc. PEN America (it used to be an acronym, now just a word for writers) found 23K book bans in past four years! From July '24 - June '25, they found 6,870 book bans, with FL, TX, and Tennessee leading the way, no surprise there.
#freedom to #read #fascist #USA #censorship #library #librarians #threat of #jail #time #book #bans #school #district #county #PenAmerica https://19thnews.org/2025/10/women-authors-banned-books-week/
DHS Sends A Journalist Back To His Home Country To Be Tortured Because ‘Live Streaming’ ICE Activities Is ‘Threatening’
Wyoming library director wins $700,000 after being fired for defending LGBTQ+ books
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/wyoming-library-director-wins-settlement
The Normalization of Book Banning – PEN America
Introduction
In 2025, book censorship in the United States is rampant and common. Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country. Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide. Never before have so many politicians sought to bully school leaders into censoring according to their ideological preferences, even threatening public funding to exact compliance. Never before has access to so many stories been stolen from so many children.
The book bans that have accumulated in the past four years are unprecedented and undeniable. This report looks back at the 2024-2025 school year – the fourth school year in the contemporary campaign to ban books – and illustrates the continued attacks on books, stories, identities, and histories.
This report offers a window into the complex and extensive climate of censorship between July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. Our reporting on book bans remains a bellwether of a larger campaign to restrict and control education and public narratives, wreaking havoc on our public schools and democracy.
The State of Book Bans
Two things help us make sense of the world – information and stories. Both explain, describe, and give language to the world we encounter. It is not a surprise then that banning books is a way of erasing stories, identities, experiences, and peoples and reshaping understandings of the past. Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop warns: “When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.”
Stories tell us who we are and who we can become.
This right – the right to discover – is being taken from students under the guise of their “protection.” Over the past four years, a misleading campaign to “protect children” alongside advocacy for “parental rights” has been weaponized to diminish students’ First Amendment rights in schools, sow distrust in librarians and educators, and diminish the ability of authors and illustrators to connect with their intended audiences. In this upside down world, any rights of young people as students are somehow subservient to the absolute rights of their parents.
In 2022, we cautioned that book bans and related threats to free expression and the First Amendment should not be ignored; that this assault on students’ freedom to read is a slippery slope; and that state censorship of this nature, once unleashed, would snowball. Today, that escalation is no longer hypothetical. For many students, families, educators, librarians, and school districts, book banning is a new normal.
This change didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t a fluke of history. National and local groups touting extreme conservative views have played on parents’ fears and anxieties to exert ideological control over public education across the United States using consistent and coordinated tactics. These groups’ efforts have catalyzed censorial trends and a full-blown attack on public schools and democracy. This “Ed Scare,” as PEN America has termed it, has produced changes at the local, state – and increasingly, federal – levels at a frighteningly rapid pace, resulting in new policies that not only diminish students’ right to read and learn, but also take away protections for educators and librarians. Together, these trends are having a profound impact on the literary community and the country at large.
As a result of these groups and their political allies, book censorship in schools has reached a new apex, now becoming a routine and expected part of school operations, particularly in states like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. And it is being anticipated on the horizon for educators and families in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota. While we explore the specific trends that have led us to this escalated climate of censorship in this report, it is important to remember the big picture. These attacks on students’ rights and educational institutions are the symptoms of a much larger disease: the dismantling of public education and a backsliding democracy.
What is a School Book Ban?
PEN America defines a school book ban as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.
Accessibility forms the core of PEN America’s definition of a school book ban and emphasizes the multiple ways book bans infringe on the rights of students, professional educators, and authors. It is important to recognize that books available in schools, whether in a school or classroom library or as part of a curriculum, were selected by librarians and educators as part of the educational offerings to students. Book bans occur when those choices are overridden by school boards, administrators, teachers, or even politicians on the basis of a particular book’s content.
For the 2024-25 school year, we recorded three types of school book bans: “banned,” which includes books that have been completely prohibited; “banned pending investigation,” which includes books that are pending a review to determine what restrictions, if any, to implement on them; and “banned by restriction,” which includes grade-level or school-level restrictions or books that require parental permissions.
For more details, please visit PEN America’s Methodology and Frequently Asked Questions on book bans. You can also visit our prior reports on book bans released in April 2022, September 2022, April 2023, December 2023, September 2024, and November 2024.
Key Trends from the 2024-2025 School Year
In the fourth year of book bans, several key trends stood out this year:
Federal efforts to restrict education use rhetoric from state and local efforts to ban books. In 2025, a new vector of book banning pressure has appeared – the federal government. Since returning to office, the Trump Administration has mimicked rhetoric about “parents’ rights”, which, in Florida and other states, has largely been used to advance book bans and censorship of schools, against the wishes of many parents, students, families, and educators. Under the guise of “returning education to parents,” President Trump has released a series of Executive Orders (EOs) mainly: “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism,” and “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.”
Although none of these EOs take a direct aim at books, they were used as justification for the July 2025 removal of almost 600 books from Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools on military bases. In restricting discussion of transgender people and diversity, equity, and inclusion and barring schools from “promoting un-American ideas,” books like ABC of Equality by Chana Ewing or several volumes from the series Heartstopper by Alice Oseman were removed from access. Students and their families responded by suing.
In addition to the efforts from the White House, the U.S. Department of Education declared book bans “a hoax,” parroting language from state leaders like Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis. The Department removed a federal position within the Office of Civil Rights set up to investigate allegations of discriminatory book bans and issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to “cease using race preferences and stereotypes” or risk federal funding. Although federal judges prohibit the enforcement of the letter, several state leaders already acknowledged compliance with the directive.
And while the the Department of Education chills speech and expression across public schools, the “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities” EO simultaneously facilitates the closure of the Department of Education. In doing so,the EO aims to transfer educational authority back to the states and local governments. Without any federal oversight, states will have carte blanche to impose ideological control over public education.
The rhetoric of the Trump Administration and the directives of the Departments of Education and Defense add yet another pressure on states and school districts to censor.
Persistent attacks conflate LGBTQ+ identities as “sexually explicit” and erase LGBTQ+ representation from schools. Since book challenges and removals exploded in 2021, books depicting same-sex and trans identities have been conflated as inherently “sexual.” In sexualizing LGBTQ+ people, swaths of literature have been removed under the premise of removing “inappropriate” or “obscene” books.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Normalization of Book Banning – PEN America
#2025 #America #BookBans #Books #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Normalization #Opinion #PENAmerica #Politics #Reading #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
Book bans in schools are more widespread than ever. Which states have had the most?
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/states-most-book-bans
From PEN America:
A Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech
The Trump Administration’s 100 Day Assault on Free Expression
https://pen.org/report/trump-administration-100-days/#heading-9
#Livros banidos nos EUA, segundo a organização PEN America. Alguns destes estão editados em Portugal.
E #palavras também não escapam!
Até ao momento, a lista tem "mais de 250 palavras e expressões que, alegadamente, deixaram de ser consideradas aceitáveis pela administração Trump", desde "aborto" a "mulheres", passando por "deficiência", "idosos", "nativos americanos" e até "Golfo do México".
#penamerica #literatura #bannedbooks #bannedwords #eua #Trump #portugal
3/ See the #PENAmerica (@penamerica) response:
https://pen.org/press-release/pen-america-criticizes-alarming-and-dismissive-language-on-book-bans-by-u-s-education-department/
"Kasey Meehan, director, Freedom to Read, at PEN America, said: “For over three years we have countered rhetoric that book bans occurring in public schools are a ‘hoax.’ They are absolutely note … Since 2021, we have meticulously recorded nearly 16,000 instances of book bans nationwide – where access to books is revoked from their intended readers – often without following commonsense processes and increasingly due to censorial legislation from states."
