PEN (organization)
PEN, which stands for "Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists," is a global organization founded to promote cooperation among writers and advocate for freedom of expression through literature. Established under the leadership of John Galsworthy, PEN has been a steadfast supporter of literature as a means to foster international goodwill and combat censorship. The organization mobilizes campaigns to help free imprisoned writers, often through direct appeals to government authorities and public awareness initiatives. Throughout its history, PEN has engaged in activism across various contexts, including Eastern Europe, South Africa, and more recent cases involving writers in Iran and other repressive environments.
With over eighty affiliates worldwide, PEN functions similarly to human rights organizations, producing reports and letters that highlight the struggles of writers facing coercion and the suppression of their work. The U.S. chapter of PEN has been led by prominent literary figures, and its members believe in the power of writers to build connections across cultures. Despite facing internal controversies, including debates over political affiliations, PEN continues its educational initiatives and annual censorship surveys, remaining committed to advocating for the rights and freedoms of writers everywhere.
Subject Terms
PEN (organization)
Founded: 1921
Type of organization: International writers’ organization
Significance: PEN was formed to foster communication among writers, and to combat censorship
An acronym for “Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists,” PEN was founded by English writer Mrs. C. A. Dawson-Scott. Under the leadership of its first president, novelist and playwright John Galsworthy, PEN aggressively promoted cooperation among writers throughout the world. The organization has consistently supported the ideal of literature as freedom of expression, and has seen literature as a vehicle for stimulating and sustaining international good will. It deems any organization, government, or group seeking to limit the spread of literature or its free expression a force for censorship.
PEN leaders and members have mobilized several campaigns to free imprisoned writers, by writing letters to government authorities and by publishing reports and articles in the international press. PEN congresses have been held in settings both friendly and hostile to free speech and literature. Leaders of PEN such as former president Francis King have led delegations and arranged meetings in countries such as South Korea, where appeals have been made on behalf of imprisoned writers. Early PEN meetings in Eastern Europe protested the incarceration of writers critical of communist governments. In South Africa, PEN members worked for a fully integrated organization for writers. PEN has also been active in opposing Iran’s sentence of death imposed on Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses (1988) was deemed blasphemous.
PEN has more than eighty affiliates around the world. The U.S. PEN chapter has been headed by such distinguished writers as Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer, and Susan Sontag. Mailer expressed the organization’s view that because writers across the world can speak to one another more quickly than can governments, they can create bridges of cooperation. His own presidency, however, became controversial when he invited U.S. secretary of state George Schultz to address a PEN meeting in 1984. Many members felt the organization was compromised by inviting a speaker implicated in political actions that had contributed to the censorship of writers.
PEN’s ongoing work includes educational programs and an annual censorship survey, an accounting of the fate of writers and their work throughout the world. To a large extent, PEN has functioned as a human rights organization—similar to Amnesty International—by publishing reports and letters signed by prominent writers calling attention to coercion of writers and the suppression of literature throughout the world. At the same time, PEN presidents have worked behind the scenes, negotiating with governments for the release of writers or petitioning officials for appeals of court cases and prison sentences.