I had to withdraw from the PEN World Voices Festival. The last straw from me was the tweet below, which implies that anyone who chooses to be a part of PEN is tacitly agreeing that PEN aligns with their values and advocacy. This comes after many private messages from PEN.(Thread)

In solidarity with the writers boycotting the PEN America World Voices Festival; PEN America United; Writers Against the War on Gaza; and all the other writers who have declined PEN awards this week––

abolish the New York Times right fucking now. this is physically sickening—

In just the last few days, several authors have withdrawn their books from PEN awards consideration.
lithub.com/withdrawals-an…

The Whiting list for Poetry is really incredible this year; huge congratulations to Elisa Gonzalez, Charif Shanahan, Javier Zamora, and Taylor Johnson, what a luminous cohort.

lol

i’ve just turned down the pen/dau prize, in solidarity with palestine + the protest against pen america’s refusal to take a clear, principled stance on the israeli genocide against the palestinian people

We've been sharing Palestinian poetry all month long for National Poetry Month. For the anniversary of the Deir Yassin Massacre, here is 'After the Apocalypse' by Samih Al-Qassem:

On average, Israel has killed about 75 children EACH DAY since October.

Please read/sign this petition calling for CUNY to reinstate adjuncts who have been fired for speaking out against genocide and in support of Palestinian liberation. One of them is my friend, the brilliant writer, translator Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda: t.ly/GvlF7 CUNY4Palestine

Hi Jenny,

Thx for the kind words. I do know about the $100K. This # feels insignificant in comparison to your CEO's $500K salary and PEN America's $43 million in assets. The prize you longlisted me for is a $75K. Surely, any Palestinian writer could use this money more than I.

In solidarity with 1300+ protesting authors I declined the PEN/DAU Prize.

PEN America needs to conduct an internal review of bias, speak out against Israel’s occupation + genocide, and apologize to Randa Jarrar.

theintercept.com/2024/03/30/pen…

This year, we (Sublunary Editions and the nominated translators) declined to participate in PEN America's annual awards. We did not feel we could do so in good conscience, given their utter failure to address an ongoing genocide. A statement here: sublunaryeditions.com/magazine/state…

Despite my deep gratitude to the judges who believed in my book, BIANCA, I have withdrawn from consideration for the 2024 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry. I made this choice in keeping with the boycott sustained against @penamerica, and in solidarity with Palestine. 🧵

Last Tuesday I found out that my book Dyscalculia was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein award. I decided to decline this recognition and asked to be removed from the longlist in solidarity with the ongoing protest of PEN's continued normalization and denial of genocide.

We've been sharing Palestinian poems for National Poetry Month—and today, on his birthday, we're sharing this poem by the writer Ghassan Kanafani, who was killed, along with his 17-year-old niece Lamees, by a car bomb planted by the zionist entity.

Arming a state committing genocide while cutting essential aid to the target population is not just complicity, it’s full on participation. Courts around the world should issue arrest warrants—not just for Israelis—but current US and German officials under universal jurisdiction

Happy birthday to Ghassan Kanafani, PFLP spokesman, acclaimed novelist. His short story titles were always exceptional—this is my favorite one:

I thought y'all didn't support boycotts

Today marks six months of war in Gaza.

We’ve compiled a thread detailing half a year of The New York Times’ complicity in Israel’s genocidal assault. Share widely!

🧵🧵🧵