PEN American Center
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| Motto | Protecting free expression and celebrating literature |
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| Formation | 1922 |
| Type | Literary society, human rights organization |
| Legal status | Nonprofit Organization |
| Purpose | Publication, advocacy, literary awards |
| Headquarters | New York, NY, USA |
| Location |
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| Coordinates | 40°43′30″N 73°59′50″W / 40.724920°N 73.997163°W |
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Region served
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Eastern Half of USA |
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Membership
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Private |
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Official language
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English |
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President
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Andrew Solomon |
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Key people
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Board of Trustees |
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Parent organization
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PEN International |
| Affiliations | International Freedom of Expression Exchange |
| Website | pen |
PEN America Center (PEN), founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, defend free expression, and foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of over 4,400 writers, editors, and translators. PEN America Center is the largest of the 149 centers in 101 countries that belong to PEN International, the worldwide association of writers that defends those who are harassed, imprisoned and killed for their views. PEN America Center is one of two PEN centers located in the USA, the other is PEN Center USA in Los Angeles which covers the western United States.
In addition to defending persecuted writers, PEN America Center sponsors public literary programs and forums on current issues, sends prominent authors to inner-city schools to encourage reading and writing, administers literary prizes, offers writing workshops to hundreds of inmates across the country, promotes international literature that might otherwise go unread in the United States, and offers grants and loans to writers facing financial or medical emergencies.
PEN is also a member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global network of nongovernmental organizations that monitors free expression violations worldwide and defends journalists, writers, human rights activists and Internet users who are persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
“MEMBERS OF PEN pledge themselves to do their utmost to dispel race, class, and national hatreds and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace in the world. And since freedom implies voluntary restraint, members also pledge themselves to oppose such evils of a free press as mendacious publication, deliberate falsehood, and distortion of facts for political and personal ends.” – from PEN’s Founding Charter, New York City, 1922
Full membership in PEN generally requires the publication of one or more books of a literary character, or one or more plays produced in a professional venue. Editors with a career of five years or more are also eligible, as are many publishers, agents, publicists and other members of the literary publishing community. Recently, PEN created an associate tier of membership, which is open to the general public.
Over the years, PEN America Center's membership has included many of the leading figures in the American literary establishment, including Edward Albee, Paul Auster, James Baldwin, Giannina Braschi, Willa Cather, Don DeLillo, Robert Frost, Tony Kushner, Langston Hughes, Thomas Mann, Arthur Miller, Marianne Moore, Susan Sontag, Salman Rushdie and John Steinbeck.
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