The PEN World Voices Festival has been canceled.

Following months of escalating protests over its response to Israel’s war on Gaza, and just four days on from the cancellation of its annual literary awards , embattled free expression organization PEN America has now also announced the cancelation of its World Voices Festival. According to a press release published on the organization’s website in the last hour, the decision to cancel the festival (which was scheduled to take place in New York and Los Angeles from May 8-16) “was not taken lightly and happens amid an escalating pattern of suppressing discourse in cultural institutions and on campuses.” The 20th incarnation of the World Voices Festival was originally set to include over 100 writers across more than 35 events, but after a number of prominent authors—including Naomi Klein, Michelle Alexander, Hisham Matar, and Lorrie Moore— withdrew in protest in mid-March (“In the context of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, we believe that PEN America has betrayed the organization’s professed commitment to peace and equality for all”), the wheels began to come off, with dozens more participants following suit in the six weeks since With two of its three signature events now canceled, many in the book world and beyond are wondering whether the PEN America Literary Gala (currently still scheduled to take place at the American Museum of Natural History on the evening of May 16) will go ahead as planned. “We’re taking it day by day,” PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel told the New York Times . Here is today’s PEN America press release in full: (NEW YORK)— PEN America announced today the cancellation of the 2024 World Voices Festival. The decision to cancel was not taken lightly and happens amid an escalating pattern of suppressing discourse in cultural institutions and on campuses. The event, and the very mission of PEN America, is to elevate writers and foster dialogue across differences. Yet we have heard from writers who have come under tremendous pressure by those who characterize anyone who participated in our events, as taking sides in the war in Gaza. A central feature of the planned festival […]

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