Two novelists have cut ties with PEN over its Mayim Bialik event and Gaza silence.

Two prominent novelists have broken with PEN America over the organization’s decision to platform controversial actor and outspoken ceasefire opponent Mayim Bialik, as well as its relative silence on the unfolding genocide in Gaza (which so far has claimed the lives of at least 120 writers, poets , and journalists ). National Book Award finalist Angela Flournoy ( The Turner House ) and O. Henry Prize winner Kathleen Alcott ( Emergency , America Was Hard to Find ) were scheduled to participate in PEN’s New Year, New Books event in Los Angeles on January 25 (Flournoy as co-host, Alcott as one of the celebrated authors), but withdrew their participation on January 18 upon discovering that PEN would be co-sponsoring a January 31 event featuring Bialik , a self-proclaimed Zionist who, in Flournoy’s words, “has spent the past 100 days sharing dehumanizing anti-Palestinian propaganda and rallying her five million followers to the cause of the Israeli military.” American actor Bialik ( Blossom , The Big Bang Theory ), who will be in conversation with the comedian Moshe Kasher about his new memoir at tonight’s PEN Out Loud event, has come under fire in recent months for donating to (and wearing the merchandise of ) the IDF, publicly opposing calls for a ceasefire , and trivializing the conflict with her inflammatory social media posts . In their Jan 18 emails to Jenn Dees (programs director at PEN America in Los Angeles) and Suzanne Nossel (CEO of PEN America since 2013), Flournoy and Alcott also took the prominent free expression organization to task for its decision to co-host the Bialik event with Writers Bloc Presents (an organization that canceled a planned event with A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy author Nathan Thrall in October), as well as for its “reluctance to take a stand against the genocide in Palestine, and particularly the targeting of writers, journalists and artists.” Here is the January 18 email exchange in its entirety: Angela Flournoy’s initial email: I will not be participating in this event or future PEN America events […]

Click here to view original page at Two novelists have cut ties with PEN over its Mayim Bialik event and Gaza silence.

© 2024, wcadmin. All rights reserved, Writers Critique, LLC Unless otherwise noted, all posts remain copyright of their respective authors.