Getting back to #5amwritersclub in a familiar space.

Been traveling this week, but I'm back at my own place celebrating.

On Wed evening, I was a recipient of the PEN Open Book Award! Phew.

I'm gobsmacked &grateful to @penamerica.bsky.social

#5amwritersclub #writingcommunity #PENAmerica

Why We Must Remember Women Writers on International Women’s Day On International Women’s Day, PEN America is working to free women writers from the rising threats they face around the world.

Check out @penamerica.bsky.social 's eye-opening blog post about the number of women jailed for their words.

In 2024, the Freedom to Write Index counted 59 women imprisioned and 195 "at risk." Iran had the most women detained.

pen.org/we-must-reme...

#penamerica #womenwriters #righttoreadohio

Original post on fediscience.org

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 […]

Translators Ann Cotten & Anna-Isabella Dinwoodie reading from Good & Safe, their smartly piquant translation of Liesl Ujvary's 1977 collection. #PoetryInTransltion #PENAmerica (Read our review: www.thetransformationreview.com/reviews/ujva...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmY3...

Want to learn how to recognize and fight the latest tactics in book banning? Sign up here! Book bans aren’t slowing down — they’re evolving with a sneakier strategy that often flies under the radar. Join us as we discuss the newest trends and tactics driving today’s book bans and how commun...

How to FIGHT AUTHORITARIANISM?
📚THURSDAY 2/ l19 7:30PM ET📚 The book ban extremists have taken their tactics around school boards and county commissions. Learn how to spot them and shut them down. #BookRiot #PENAmerica #RedWine&Blue RSVP: go.redwine.blue/0219bb

FBI raids home of Washington Post reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move — Guardian US Agents searched Hannah Natanson’s Virginia home and seized devices in inquiry tied to a classified materials case

FBI raids home of #WashingtonPost reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move
#HannahNatanson #MartyBaron #theGuardian #PamBondi #AurelioPerez-Lugones #BruceDBrown #JameelJaffer #KnightFirstAmendmentInstitute #SethStern #FreedomofthePressFoundation #TimRichardson #PenAmerica #FirstAmendment

Supporting the Freedom to Read will give you a warm feeling inside ...
#PENAmerica #FreedomToRead #bannedbooks
#indiebookstores

After ‘60 Minutes’ Pulls Investigation on Deportations, PEN America Warns that Journalism Can’t Depend on Government Approval The decision by Bari Weiss, the new CBS News editor in chief, to pull a “60 Minutes” segment on the deportation of Venezuelan migrants—reportedly because the Trump administration refused to be intervi...

CBS pulled a completed 60 Minutes investigation into deportations after the Trump administration refused to participate, highlighting how access denial now functions as a tool of press suppression. #PressFreedom #MediaSuppression #Immigration #Deportations #Trump #CBS #60Minutes #PENAmerica

We are thrilled to announce that At the Same Time: New and Selected Poems by Wang Jiaxin, translated from Chinese by John Balcom, has been named a finalist for the prestigious PEN Translation Award! 🏆

#ArrowsmithPress #WangJiaxin #JohnBalcom #PENAmerica #TranslationAward

Both honored and humbled for my debut novel IBIS to be longlisted by @penamerica.bsky.social for the PEN America Open Book Award. ☺️💚

Now back to writing!

#5amwritersclub #writingcommunity #amwriting #debutauthor #writersky #PENAmerica #longlisted #writingaward #debutnovel

#PENAmerica released top 52 banned books (FIFTY TWO) in public schools since 2021. This is America!?

PEN America Book Ban Index Data Book bans are a scourge of censorship across the country. Check for yourself using PEN America's Book Ban Indexes that have amassed this information since 2021.

And the Pen America index of banned books and challenged books. There's a lot of data - incredibly valuable.

#PenAmerica
#bannedbooks
#bookban

pen.org/book-bans/pe...

Steve Hofstetter’s full speech to the American Association of School Librarians about book bans.
📚📖
#BannedBooks #Books #PENAmerica #AASL

youtu.be/bplGasnpq-M

Pen America bans Yusei Matsui's "Assassination Classroom" from public school libraries in the United States.
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www.facebook.com/share/p/19rw...
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#PenAmerica #Manga

Según un informe divulgado por #PENAmerica, más de 6.800 vetos se instauraron durante el ciclo escolar 2024-25, abarcando 87 distritos en 23 estados. Esta organización monitorea anualmente las tendencias censoras y declaró que la situación actual es polarización y #censura en el sector educativo

Trump's Government Word Wars - we call it censorship Agencies have scrubbed words from their websites.

paidprotester.substack.com/p/trumps-gov...
Donald Trump claims to be for free speech and against censorship, but he contradicts that with what he does every day. Individual words are now banned.
#words #censorship #bannedwords #Trump #HHS #FDA #PenAmerica #governmentcensorship #executiveorder

Holy cow!🤡

Docu "The Librarians" (2025):

The parallels with #McCarthyism are underlined not just by clips of Joe McCarthy himself and his own attacks on controversial books in the 1940s/50s, but by still-resonant film and TV clips...

#TheLibrarians #KimASnyder #PENAmerica

Original post on mastodon.social

están detrás de muchas de estas iniciativas.
El informe de #PENAmerica indica que desde que las impugnaciones y retiradas de libros se dispararon en 2021, los libros que representan identidades del mismo sexo y trans se han confundido con contenido inherentemente “sexual”; y se ha eliminado gran […]

Original post on mastodon.social

#Censura
La prohibición de #libros en las #escuelaspúblicas de Estados Unidos se normaliza: casi 7.000 títulos fueron vetados en el último año
El informe anual de #PEN America afirma que los distritos escolares del país están siendo objeto de múltiples presiones locales, estatales y también […]

Graphic titled “Literacy Highlight” with headline text reading “PEN America warns of rise in books ‘systematically removed from school libraries’” by Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR. Below, a photo shows a stack of frequently banned books, including A Clockwork Orange, Sold, Breathless, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, A Court of Mist and Fury, Wicked, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Forever.

📚 PEN America reports nearly 7,000 school book bans across the U.S. in 24-25: the highest ever recorded.

Federal schools have pulled hundreds of books under executive orders targeting race, diversity, and “gender ideology.”

#FreedomToRead #BookBans #RightToRead #PENAmerica

#EEUU. El informe de #PENAmerica indica que "Nunca antes tantos políticos habían tratado de intimidar a los responsables de los centros escolares para que censuraran según sus preferencias ideológicas, amenazando incluso con financiación pública para exigir su cumplimiento".

Según un informe de #PENAmerica titulado "La normalización de la censura de libros - Vetado en EE.UU., 2024-2025)" 👉 unos 6.870 libros fueron retirados temporal o permanentemente para el curso escolar 2024-2025 en 23 estados y 87 distritos escolares públicos.👈

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference to seek, receive and impart information. END OF STORY. #BannedBooksWeek #humanrights #penamerica #millionmilewalker

Banned Books List 2025 What books are banned in 2025? Thousands of titles have been removed from public schools across the country.

What #books are #banned in 2025?
#PENAmerica has documented nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021, a number never before seen in the life of any living American. This censorship is being mobilized by groups espousing conservative viewpoints.

pen.org/banned-books...

The Normalization of Book Banning This report offers a window into the complex and extensive climate of censorship between July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

It is a joy, privilege, and responsibility to create reading lists for my students. It's also more important than ever to stand against censorship and in solidarity with academic freedom in education.

#EduSky #RightToRead #PenAmerica #anticensorship #readbannedbooks

pen.org/report/the-n...

Courage This piece of writing placed second in the 2024 PEN America Prison Writing Awards. Courage I don't remember the Mexican kid's name anymore but I do remember his age which was 18. He looked young, younger than 18 although he carried himself like a man much older. Let me clarify, he was young and stupid and full of bad decisions but his stupidity was that of the young and his bad decisions were of that as well.

Robert Hiraeth's PEN Award-winning prison writing explores what it costs to survive institutional violence - and what it costs everyone around you.

#PrisonWriting #PENAmerica #LiteraryNonfiction #CreativeNonfiction #CriminalJustice

images of covers of banned books

#banned #books #banned #thinking #read #read #think #think #ala #penamerica #penusa #amnesty #godblessusa #global #blessings

Democracy depends on ordinary people refusing to normalize the erosion of freedom.
Thanks.
#DemocracyWatch #ProtectFreeSpeech #SupremeCourtWatch #GovernmentAccountability #RuleOfLaw #FirstAmendment #SpeakSafely #RuralVoicesMatter #FreedomNotFear #ACLU #BrennanCenter #PENAmerica #DigitalResistance