Your Cart is Empty
Ramesh Ponnuru
Washington Post
PEN America is a venerable organization of writers that, it says on its website, “stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide.” In recent years, though, it has more often stood at the intersection of political infighting and bad publicity.
The latest black eye: Dinaw Mengestu, a novelist who became PEN America’s president last December, resigned on July 9 and then, in an essay for Literary Hub, attacked “the organization’s hypocrisy,” “dishonesty” and “bigotry.” As in past PEN America controversies, the flash point was disagreement over Israel and the Palestinians. The underlying causes are the literary world’s expansive sense of its social role and confusion about what counts as a threat to free speech — and what doesn’t.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
A leading House Democrat on Tuesday called for an investigation into new whistleblower allegations that the Trump administration forced universities it deemed politically incorrect into settling antisemitism cases despite flimsy or nonexistent evidence.
Yesterday in London, Jason Arday, the controversy-plagued British academic and author, was found dead. Made famous as the youngest Black professor in Cambridge’s more than 800-year history, Arday had been dogged by weeks of scrutiny amid accusations of plagiarism, fake qualifications, and a fabricated backstory filled with hard-to-believe details.
