Free speech group PEN America has canceled its annual World Voices Festival after many attendees withdrew, sparking a boycott campaign led by writers who said the group's response to the Gaza war was not sufficiently critical of Israel. .
The festival, which was scheduled to begin May 8, was canceled Friday, days after PEN America canceled its literary awards ceremony after nearly half of the nominees abstained in protest. Held in New York and Los Angeles, the festival was scheduled to include dozens of panels, readings and events with writers from around the world.
PEN America said in a press release that the decision was made because a growing number of writers were opting out. Some said it was because of their differences with the group, others said they felt pressured to do so and felt “genuine fear.”
“As an organization that cares deeply about the freedom of writers to speak their consciences, we are concerned about any situation where writers tell us they feel closed off or that speaking their minds takes too much risk,” the statement said. He said. “In this atmosphere, it has become impossible to hold the festival according to the principles on which it was founded 20 years ago.”
PEN America, which describes itself as “at the intersection of literature and human rights,” is said to be the latest cultural organization to fall into crisis in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people. According to Gaza authorities, the Israeli government and its military response in Gaza have killed about 34,000 people.
After groups like 92NY and the Frankfurt Book Fair canceled or restricted pro-Palestinian authors or events, PEN America issued a series of statements criticizing those decisions. “We are concerned about the growing number of calls to ban, cancel, shun and stigmatize,” Suzanne Nossel, the group’s CEO, said on Friday.
But in recent months, PEN America has become increasingly keen to defend itself, with a series of open letters sharply criticizing the group's leadership and stance on the war, with some even accusing it of being a mouthpiece for the U.S. or Israeli governments.
Suspending two major events raises questions about whether PEN America will proceed with its annual gala event at the Natural History Museum. The event brings together authors, donors and celebrities for one of the most extravagant events on the New York literary calendar. It is scheduled for May 16th.
“We’re taking it day by day,” Nossel said.
Nossel and Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, director of literary programs at PEN America, said Friday that the cancellation of the event was a blow not only to the organization but to the ideals of open discussion, debate and disagreement it advocates.
“If you look around our literary community, many institutions are struggling to do this,” Rosaz Shariyf said. “At PEN, that is our mission and reason for being.”
Nossel, who has led PEN America since 2013, lamented that the idea of civil but divisive debate that has animated the festival since its founding in 2005 amid divisions over the Iraq War has “fallen apart.”
Since October 7, PEN America's leadership has been under pressure internally, with some staff concerned about its timid response to the impact of Israel's military operations, including the deaths and attacks on multiple Palestinian journalists, on freedom of expression and cultural life. I'm doing it. Damaged or destroyed Palestinian universities and cultural institutions.
In recent months, internal dialogue has often been echoed by fierce public criticism of the organization.
Last February, hundreds of writers signed an open letter condemning PEN America after organizers of a PEN-sponsored event featuring pro-Israel actress Mayim Bialik removed a Palestinian-American writer who had disrupted the event.
The signatories urged PEN America to speak more forcefully about Palestinian writers and scholars killed in the war and to name “their killer: Israel, the Zionist colonial state funded by the U.S. government.” If the group does not want this, the letter said, “PEN must be disbanded.”
The letter's signatories initially included few PEN America members or celebrities. But the pressure intensified in March when a dozen prominent writers, including Naomi Klein, Lorrie Moore and Hisham Matar, announced they were withdrawing from the festival in protest.
“As Israel continues to wage war in Gaza, we believe that PEN America has betrayed the organization’s commitment to peace and equality for all and freedom and security for writers everywhere,” they wrote in an open letter. .
According to PEN America, some of those who initially dropped out were scheduled to appear on a panel about threats to free speech by Palestinians and others with pro-Palestinian views. After the cancellation of the Literary Award, the number soared again and more writers continued to withdraw.
Rosaz Shariyf said some writers faced extreme pressure to withdraw online. She said much of it had “elements of a shame campaign”.
When contacted by The New York Times, several writers whose names have disappeared from the festival website in recent days declined to comment or clarify whether they had dropped out. (The festival website has since been closed.)
However, some writers have objected to the idea that there was a pressure campaign and that their departure meant “silencing” them or others, as some statements from the PEN leadership implied.
Novelist Hari Kunzru Withdrew from the festival In late March, he said that although he strongly believed in PEN America's mission, remaining at the festival would have seemed like an endorsement of the group's failure to engage “deeply and honestly” in the war in Gaza.
Kunzru said some of PEN America's recent responses to criticism, such as the announcement of a $100,000 fund for Palestinian writers and a promise to conduct a systematic review of the past decade's work, were “too little too late.”
“I feel like I’m managing perceptions,” he said.
In a letter this month, nine former PEN Americas presidents, including Salman Rushdie, Ayad Akhtar and Jennifer Egan, told the authors they had “always embraced dissent within the organization.” It urged people to “maintain confidence” in the group.
On Friday, current president Jennifer Finney Boylan announced that the group's efforts include fighting book bans, opposition to laws restricting education on controversial topics, and other efforts to counter growing threats. They expressed concern that people had lost track of all the emergency work being done by PEN America. For freedom of expression in America
But staying true to the mission means listening to critics, Boylan said.
“What we’re fighting for is people’s right to criticize,” she said.