Statement on the Successful Boycott of PEN America

Early in 2024, Writers Against the War on Gaza began a pressure campaign against PEN America in response to the organization’s betrayal of Palestinian writers, its normalization of Israeli apartheid and Zionism, and its then-CEO Suzanne Nossel’s promotion of genocide apologia. Within a few months, the groundswell of solidarity in our literary communities led us to declare a full boycott, which has been steadfastly upheld by hundreds of writers refusing to participate in PEN’s events, prizes, publications, and institutional programs. Through these principled acts of refusal and disruption, PEN America’s status as an advocate for free expression has been called into question and its internal contradictions have been exposed. Now, as PEN America has responded to our demands that the organization live up to its stated mission by defending Palestinian writers and investing in Palestinian life and culture, we are no longer calling for all writers of conscience to withdraw from any association with the organization. We also recognize and respect that some writers may, on an individual basis, continue refusing to work with PEN America, which has a long history of support for US imperialism.

Here are some of the ways in which writers and organizers collectively altered the culture of PEN America:

• Suzanne Nossel was forced to resign. Nossel, PEN America’s CEO from 2013 to 2024, is a proud Zionist and Islamophobe who spearheaded the organization’s genocide denialism and repression of anti-Zionist writers. In October of 2024, she departed PEN America after months of unrelenting internal and external pressure. She remains unemployed. 

• In 2023 and 2024, the Jean Stein Award went unawarded after nominees withdrew, with the $75,000 prize donated to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund instead.

• Due to mass withdrawals, the 2024 awards ceremony was canceled along with that year’s World Voices Festival, PEN America’s flagship event.

• In June 2025, PEN America joined PEN International in effectively calling for a US arms embargo of Israel.  

• In September 2025, after nearly two years of denialism, PEN America joined the overwhelming international consensus that Israel’s war on Gaza is, in fact, a genocide, and began to use that language publicly.

• PEN America says it has contributed more than $500,000 in aid to Palestinians surviving the US–Israeli genocide.

• After more than a year of near-total disregard for the hundreds of journalists assassinated by Israel, PEN America has begun highlighting the struggles and stories of Palestinian writers and journalists in external communications.

• PEN has published a detailed report cataloging the tremendous loss of cultural heritage in Palestine. 

• According to sources inside the organization, all efforts to establish an Israeli chapter of PEN have been cancelled.

PEN America has lost its ability to posture as a bastion of free speech while maintaining the Palestine exception, and its reputation as an organization that serves writers at risk cannot be repaired without massive institutional change. This kind of change does not happen in a vacuum. Institutions like PEN America will maintain their so-called neutrality on the moving train of history unless there is interference from committed movements, applying consistent pressure from within and without. We honor the dozens of workers at PEN America who spoke out and walked out in protest of Zionist leadership. We also honor the work of organizations like Adalah NY, which, in 2016, undertook the Palestine solidarity movement’s first targeted pressure campaign against PEN.

Cultural institutions belong to us, not to billionaire board members. PEN America is one of many institutions whose mission has been corrupted by its allegiance to empire. That is the bad news. The good news: This victory is reproducible. 

For writers and culture workers in the West, there is more work to do. If you decide to participate in PEN America’s programs and awards in the future, here are ways to continue your commitment to Palestinian liberation:

• Say no to normalization. Continue to refuse the normalization of Zionism in all facets of your cultural work. 

• Say yes to mutual aid. Answer the calls from those on the ground in Gaza and donate payments to Palestinian-led initiatives, like the Sameer Project or Gaza Soup Kitchen. 

• Organize and agitate against Zionism in cultural institutions. Do so regularly, relentlessly, and in accordance with the long history of Palestinian activism. Join another ongoing campaign, like No Arms in the Arts or Boycott, Divest, Unsubscribe.

“Free speech advocacy” is meaningless when it excludes the voices of those fighting for freedom, while gladly embracing the fascistic perpetrators of genocide. There is no safe shelter that makes space for genocide, apartheid, colonialism, and white supremacy. The myth of the “big tent” has been undone.

It remains to be seen whether PEN America will continue to learn from the lessons of the past two years. As its board continues the search for a new CEO, the organization should follow the example of PEN International and its many other chapters, most of which took positions against the genocide almost immediately after October 7, 2023. PEN America must match its shift in rhetoric with tangible commitments and full-bodied support for Palestinian writers, both in Palestine and in the near and far diasporas.

The success of our boycott has forced PEN America to respond to the demands of the movement. We believe that we will see the reverberations of these victories across the literary world. Writers of conscience have spoken: We will not let our work be associated with Zionism anywhere.