What happens when a free speech group gets boycotted for not speaking out enough
Prizes on display at last year’s PEN America literary awards ceremony. Courtesy of Getty Images
By Mira Fox April 18, 2024
Numerous authors have withdrawn from PEN America’s prestigious literary awards in protest of the organization’s response to the Israel-Hamas war — including nine out of the 10 long-listed for the Jean Stein Book Award for a work of “originality” and “impact.”
The 10th writer is a Black poet named Camille T. Dungy, whose memoir about her garden, called Soil, is slated for publication in May.
So perhaps it is unsurprising that while many of the pro-Palestinian authors who pulled out of the PEN awards have been posting about the war, and their criticism of the organization’s response, Dungy’s Instagram has been filled with nature.
“When this redbud flowers out, I know the semester is drawing to a close (2.5 weeks left),” Dungy, who is also a professor at Colorado State University, posted on Wednesday. As her fellow nominees were posting about their withdrawal from the awards, Dungy shared a photo of a squirrel captioned: “On this tumultuously windy day, I’m happy to see that the squirrel outside my office window is able to find a safe place to rest.”
It remains unclear whether Dungy will win the $75,000 prize by default or if PEN will proceed with its regular selection process, considering — and potentially honoring — authors who have withdrawn. The awards are scheduled to be announced at an April 29 event.
Monica Youn, another poet who was long listed for the Jean Stein award, announced her withdrawal on Instagram, saying: “Like many others, I believe that @penamerica has failed in its mission to support Palestinian writers facing genocide.”
The withdrawals from the awards, which would award authors and translators up to $350,000 in combined prize money, is the latest in a growing chorus of criticism that has plagued PEN America, a nonprofit that has advocated for free speech and the protection of writers for over a century. Authors have pulled out of PEN literary events, and publicly criticized the group for not condemning Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza harshly enough or expressing enough outrage about the Palestinian journalists killed in the fighting.
PEN America’s mission statement says that it works “to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others.” This includes opposition to book-bannings and bills limiting educational curriculum, defense of journalists and “robust protections for academic freedom and freedom of speech.”
Dungy, who was unavailable for an interview on Thursday because she is traveling, said in a statement that this advocacy is why she has not withdrawn her memoir from consideration for the award.
“Right now in America, book bans are increasing at an alarming rate,” she wrote. “Such bans are putting young people at risk, particularly Black, Brown, queer, and trans youths who can’t access books that represent and affirm who they are and who they need and want to be. PEN America has fought such book bans for years, and it is because of this fundamental mission that I continue to support the organization.”
But for many writers, this work is overshadowed now by Gaza. In a series of open letters since February, authors including literary luminaries Naomi Klein and Roxane Gay accused the organization of straying from its mission to protect writers around the world by failing to call strongly enough for a ceasefire, and said it has a history of perpetuating “fascist nation-statehood.”
PEN America has made numerous statements about the war, including calling for a ceasefire in March, and criticizing Israel’s recently passed legislation that could block Al Jazeera from operating there. The organization has also allocated $100,000 to support writers in Gaza.
Nevertheless, in a letter published Wednesday, the authors withdrawing from the awards said the group had “failed to confront the genocide of the Palestinian people and defend our fellow writers in Gaza,” citing the fact that PEN America has not referred to the war as a genocide. The authors also allege that the group has “sought to suppress the off-hours political speech and activity of its own workers.”
It all begs a bigger question: What is the role of PEN America — and how should they achieve it? The group’s many statements in response to the authors’ protest letters have all affirmed its commitment to maintaining a “big tent” of opinions, which means including writers with a full range of positions on Israel and Zionism.
PEN America’s statements about the war have addressed all kinds of limitations on free speech, from both ends of the political spectrum. One decried the cancellation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s talk at the 92NY after he published a letter critical of Israel, and another castigated the retraction of an essay in Guernica magazine that was written by an Israeli leftist.
It’s nearly impossible to maintain a “big tent” of clashing opinions, advocating for a broad right to free speech, in today’s climate. Indeed, the authors of the most recent letter to PEN America allege that “neutrality is a betrayal of justice,” suggesting that “among writers of conscience, there is no disagreement” about the war and the broader Israel-Palestinian conflict. “There is fact and fiction.”
Making things harder is the fact that PEN’s charter promises not only to protect freedom of speech, but also to “dispel all hatreds” — a tricky bedfellow for free speech, which encompasses hateful speech.
PEN America’s president, Jennifer Finney Boylan, published an essay Thursday responding to the withdrawals from the awards and acknowledging that the organization’s response to the war has not been perfect. In it, she also announced the creation of a working group to assess the organization’s commitment to its charter going back 10 years.
Dungy, meanwhile, may be taking more of a political stand than meets the eye with her nature photos. “In these terrible times, I point toward beauty, hope, and joy,” she posted along with a video of bees last month. “Not to ignore the violence, horror, and brutality happening today. I choose to share beauty, joy, and hope as a conscious act of resistance.” She included several hashtags: “#ceasefirenow #gardnersforpeace.”
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