BOYCOTT PEN AMERICA

Because there can be no freedom to write without a free Palestine

I’m so proud to be part of the Writers Against the War on Gaza team working to hold PEN America accountable for its total disregard for Palestinian life and freedom. We’ve had a number of stunning movement victories, and we’ve done it with care, compassion, truthtelling, and hard work. We’ve been straight forward with our critiques and our goal of making PEN America live up to its own stated mission. The leadership of PEN America has played fast and loose with facts, refused to engage with any critique, and slandered anyone who dares lodge a complaint. Left with nothing but insults to defend themselves with, they’ve hurled baseless accusations of antisemitism at us. Meanwhile, they’re unravelling before our eyes, becoming not just irrelevant but untouchable, and their entrenched silence on this ongoing genocide is hurting all the genuinely important work they do on book bans and censorship.

So today, we say: ENOUGH!

We’re calling for a full boycott of PEN America. Full text and details of our demands and how not to cross the picket line below. Please share widely and join us in calling for a leadership that will truly live up to all the noble ideals PEN America claims to represent.

After months of genocide apologia, craven handwringing, empty rhetoric, and refusal of accountability, we are left with only one option.

BOYCOTT PEN AMERICA

In the wake of PEN AMERICA’s broken promises of institutional reform, rampant abuse in the workplace, mass staff defections, PR campaigns with anti-Palestinian, pro-imperial rags like the New York Times and The Atlantic, continuous caping for the US State Department and normalizing Zionism and “Israeli” apartheid, we say: enough is enough. It is time to BOYCOTT PEN AMERICA.

The organization has sold us out. It has betrayed writers, readers, and its own staff in the service of the professional and political ambitions of its CEO, Suzanne Nossel, who has spent her career cheerleading war, promoting Islamophobia, and platforming genocidaires. 

PEN America’s members—most of whom are writers—overwhelmingly want the organization to support Palestinian writers. Yet the organization has prioritized the interests of its technocratic leaders and the millionaires who sit on the Board of Trustees. It has abrogated its responsibility to its own bylaws, the PEN Charter, and the global network of PEN Centers who share its mission. 

We are done waiting for PEN America to hold itself accountable. As writers, editors, and translators of conscience we call for a BOYCOTT of all of PEN America’s projects, events, and activities. We will not submit writing to their awards. We will refuse to attend, accept, participate in, or publicize their events, prizes, galas, panels, publications, and readings. Our boycott will not end until the following demands are met.

WE DEMAND THAT PEN AMERICA:

• Commit material, financial, and political support for Palestinian writers and publishers in the midst of this ongoing genocide with the full weight of PEN America’s organizational reach, as has been done for writers in other contexts, such as Ukraine and China;

• Publicly sign on to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and refuse to normalize the genocidal ideology of Zionism;

• Immediately remove Suzanne Nossel and senior leadership, and rewrite organizational bylaws to prevent despots like Suzanne Nossel from using their position to abuse and silence staff or advance their own political agendas;

• Impose term limits on board members, reduce the size of the board, and require all new board members to be writing professionals nominated by PEN membership in order to ensure the board’s independence from the director;

• Open a comprehensive, independent audit of PEN America’s finances, including of grants, awards, endowments, and external partnerships, to be made fully transparent and available to members and staff.
  
  

DO NOT CROSS THE PICKET LINE!

Until these demands are met:

• Do not judge or administer their prizes

• Do not submit work for consideration for prizes

• Do not accept prize or grant money

• Do not accept prize or award nominations

• Do not participate in or publicize PEN America-branded or affiliated events and projects, including co-sponsored readings, literary festivals, fundraisers, panels, galas, publications, workshops, social media, or blog posts

We recognize the sad fact that PEN America is one of the few organizations to provide support for emerging and underrepresented writers and translators, and we do not take calling for a boycott lightly—as writers, translators, editors, and publishers, we refuse to play any role in laundering the organization’s reputation with our names, our words, and our voices. We refuse to validate an institution that equivocates on genocide and traffics in the Palestine exception to free expression.

A PEN AMERICA that defends writers must defend Palestinian writers. There can be no freedom to write without a free Palestine. 

#BOYCOTTPENAMERICA