PEN America’s annual gala in New York on Thursday night raised more than $2 million even as recent reports from PEN and the American Library Association documented a continued surge in book bans in the U.S., with thousands of works being pulled from schools and libraries. The event, staged at the American Museum of Natural History, put the machinery of literary prestige and fundraising on display while writers and journalists face persecution worldwide.
Who Gets Silenced
The most immediate fact was not the applause or the awards, but the pressure already bearing down on writers and readers. PEN said the gala came amid a continued surge in book bans in the U.S., with thousands of works removed from schools and libraries. The organization also said writers and journalists face persecution worldwide. That is the terrain beneath the polished dinner: institutions deciding what can be read, what can be said, and who gets punished for insisting otherwise.
Ann Patchett, author and bookseller, accepted the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award and asked the audience to take a breath and consider the museum’s setting and its lessons about the written word, free expression and the world’s history of beauty and violence. She said, “The history of nature is made up of both extreme beauty and violence, volcanoes and butterflies, shifting tectonic plates and marsupials, the bones of the stegosaurus and the light of Milky Way.” She added, “To spend a day in this museum is to understand that the world had plenty of action before we got here, and it will continue to have plenty of action. And so, let us marvel that people still want to write books, and that we want to read them.”
The People at the Bottom
The night’s loudest applause went to the people confronting censorship from below. The Tennessee-based activists Tatiana Silvas and Keri Lambert received one of the evening’s longest ovations for their anti-censorship Rutherford County Library Alliance, which has fought book bans in the Rutherford area. The alliance won the PEN/Benenson Courage Award. Lambert said, “Libraries are not simply buildings filled with books. They are one of the few institutions that truly belong to everyone, regardless of age, income, background or beliefs.” She added, “Defending libraries is really about defending democracy itself. A healthy community depends on informed citizens, open dialogue and the freedom to explore ideas. Libraries make all of that possible.”
That grassroots fight stood in sharp contrast to the formal gala circuit around it. The alliance’s work was recognized inside a museum while the bans it opposes continue to strip books from schools and libraries. The hierarchy is plain enough: people organizing locally against censorship, and institutions deciding what gets removed.
What the Gatekeepers Said
PEN co-CEO Summer Lopez framed the crisis in terms that pointed directly at the logic of repression. She said, “First, they come for your freedom of expression. Without that freedom to raise your voice, it is much easier to strip away all of your other rights.” She added, “We believe that hidden in the horrors of this moment is also an opportunity — to mobilize people and ignite a movement for free expression, here and everywhere.”
The gala also handed out PEN’s Business Visionary award to film producer Jason Blum, whose credits range from Jordan Peele’s Oscar-nominated “Get Out” to the horror franchises “Halloween” and “Paranormal Activity.” He was introduced by actor-singer Maya Hawke, who said he was her godfather and described him as an ongoing role model who “builds a safe and boundaried structure and then gives creatives freedom and control within that. Like a good father, or godfather.” Blum said horror films do not have a rich history of critical praise and read insults he said he had come across, including “For the young, the ignorant, and the idle” and “Extremely provocative of that sensation in the palate and throat which leads to nausea.” He said those remarks dated to the 19th century and were directed at the mass market sensation of the time, the novel. “So all forms of storytelling, especially when they’re new and different, need protection from the forces of snobbery and suppression,” he said.
The gala was hosted by author-actor B.J. Novak. Iranian writer-dissidents Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee and Ali Asadollahi received the PEN/Barbery Freedom to Write Award, given to writers who have faced government harassment and imprisonment. PEN President Dinaw Mengestu said neither was able to attend and that their absence was signified by two empty chairs. He asked the audience to imagine a time of no empty chairs “on this stage or on any stage in this world.”
The evening’s fundraising total, more than $2 million, underscored the scale of the institution’s reach even as the bans, harassment and imprisonment described onstage showed the cost paid by those without power. The gala’s speeches kept returning to free expression, but the facts around the room made clear who is already paying for its loss.