PEN America, a leading nonprofit dedicated to free expression, canceled its 2024 World Voices Festival late last week under pressure from pro-Palestinian activists.
Many writers affiliated with the organization either threatened to boycott the event unless PEN acceded to certain demands, including labeling Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocide,” or distanced themselves from the free-speech group in response to online pressure from pro-Palestinian activists.
“As an organization that cares deeply about the freedom of writers to speak their conscience, we are concerned about any circumstance in which writers tell us they feel shut down, or that speaking their minds bears too much risk,” PEN said in a statement. “Amid this climate, it became impossible to mount the Festival in keeping with the principles upon which it was founded 20 years ago.”
PEN has issued dozens of statements on the ongoing war in Gaza since Israel was invaded on October 7, including one calling for an “an immediate ceasefire and release of the hostages.” But, for pro-Palestinian activists who count themselves members of the groups, the statements have not been harsh enough in describing Israel’s prosecution of the war.
“PEN America states that ‘the core’ of its mission is to ‘support the right to disagree,’” reads the most recent open letter from the group’s pro-Palestinian faction, the culmination of several back-and-forth exchanges between the group and the faction. “But among writers of conscience, there is no disagreement. There is fact and fiction. The fact is that Israel is leading a genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Last week, in a separate decision, PEN canceled its literary awards for the year after nearly half of the nominees withdrew their names from consideration. Among those who withdrew were nine of the ten nominees for the most generous and prestigious PEN/Jean Stein Award, which comes with a $75,000 prize.
In mid April, 30 nominated writers and translators wrote to the PEN America Board and Trustees that they “wholeheartedly reject PEN America and its failure to confront the genocide in Gaza.” The coalition also urged the resignations of PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel, PEN America President Jennifer Finney Boylan, and the PEN America Executive Committee.
In a statement, Nossel echoed a similar sentiment to Rushdie after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, when he lamented that PEN America should lose legitimacy if it cannot rally support for murdered artists who drew politically incorrect cartoons.
“We share the anguish over the loss of life and devastation of the war,” Nossel said. “We are listening to our critics…We now face a campaign that casts our struggle to reflect complexity, uphold our identity as a big tent organization, and show fealty to our principles as a moral abdication. The perspective that engaging with those who hold a different point of view constitutes an impermissible act of legitimization negates the very possibility of dialogue.”
Founded by acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie in 2004, the festival draws writers from around the globe for a literature celebration that affirms creative freedom.
Rushdie was nearly killed for his writing in August 2022, when he was stabbed in the back and abdomen while preparing to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. The author had been a target of Islamic fundamentalists since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — then the dictator of the Iranian regime — issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his assassination. His 1988 novel The Satanic Verses included what was deemed by some to be an unflattering and blasphemous portrayal of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. One religious foundation in Iran had offered a bounty on Rushdie’s head of over $3 million.
In May 2023, following the attempt on his life, Rushdie addressed the annual dinner benefit of PEN America, saying, “I feel great. I have a long association with PEN America and I’m just happy to be amongst writers and book people.”
Rushdie could testify, however, that politics has in the past complicated PEN America’s mission to defend writers whose work is threatened. In 2015, PEN America honored the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo at its annual gala after Muslim terrorists murdered a dozen writers at the publication, which poked fun at many ethnicities and religions, including Islam. Six PEN America writers skipped the function, and 242 signed a letter of protest.
PEN has sometimes skewed toward progressives. Last fall, the organization released an annual report documenting “3,362 book bans affecting 1,557 unique titles” in public schools across the United States during the 2022–2023 academic year. The report said that 88 percent of book bans occurred in Republican states, and “over 40 percent of all book bans occurred in school districts in Florida.”
PEN’s broad definition of “ban” included restricted access on the basis of content objections from parents, the community, the administration, or lawmakers and government officials. Content that these groups have deemed problematic is obscene, borderline-pornographic material, such as the sexually explicit vignettes in Gender Queer: A Memoir, whose own author conceded to the Washington Post that it could be too mature for young audiences.