After facing weeks of backlash for its response to the conflict in Gaza, PEN America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to free speech, has decided to cancel its annual literary awards ceremony. The ceremony, originally scheduled to take place next week in New York, has seen nearly half of its nominees withdraw, with some accusing the organization of not taking a strong enough stance against Israel’s actions.
In a letter to the PEN America executive board and trustees, a group of nominees wrote, “We refuse to gild the reputation of an organization that runs interference for an administration aiding and abetting genocide with our tax dollars.” They further stated, “And we refuse to take part in anything that will serve to overshadow PEN’s complicity in normalizing genocide.”
Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, PEN America’s chief program officer for literary programming, announced the difficult decision to cancel the ceremony in an email to awards judges on Monday. She wrote, “In light of these developments, we regret that we cannot celebrate and recognize this year’s nominated writers in the way we had originally planned. As a result, unfortunately we have made the difficult decision to not move forward with the scheduled awards ceremony on April 29. This is an unprecedented situation for our team and we had not anticipated writing to you with this news.”
While judges had already selected five finalists and a winner for each award, PEN America stated that winners who had not withdrawn would still receive their cash prizes. No winners will be announced in categories where the chosen author had withdrawn.
A total of 28 out of 61 authors and translators nominated for a book prize this year declined. Three out of 12 emerging writers selected for an award for debut short fiction also declined, and a fourth withdrew hours after learning of his win. He was replaced by a runner-up before the winners were publicly announced.
Among the awards, the PEN/Jean Stein award is considered the most prestigious and lucrative, offering $75,000 to the winner. Nine out of 10 finalists for this award withdrew. Representatives for the literary estate of Jean Stein, a passionate advocate for Palestinian rights, announced that the prize money would be donated to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund in honor of Stein’s support for Palestinian writers and artists.
The discontent with PEN America’s stance on the Gaza war has been building since early this year. Authors have canceled appearances at programs and declined spots on award juries, expressing their dissatisfaction with the organization’s response to the plight of Palestinian writers, journalists, and activists.
In January, author Randa Jarrar was physically removed from a PEN-sponsored discussion featuring comedian Moshe Kasher’s memoir “Subculture Vulture.” This incident, along with the organization’s perceived lack of support for Palestinian voices, further fueled the backlash.
Despite PEN America’s calls for a ceasefire and other initiatives, the organization’s response has been met with criticism. In March, around two dozen writers withdrew from the PEN World Voices Festival scheduled for May, and over a thousand signed an open letter demanding that PEN America take a stronger stance against Israel’s actions.
The announcement of the awards ceremony on April 8 led to even more criticism. Twenty-one nominees signed a letter calling for the resignation of top PEN leaders, including chief executive Suzanne Nossel and president Jennifer Finney Boylan. The letter stated, “Among writers of conscience, there is no disagreement. There is fact and fiction. The fact is that Israel is leading a genocide of the Palestinian people. PEN’s perpetuation of false equivalences, their equivocation and normalizing, is indeed a betrayal.”
PEN America responded by calling this language “alarming” and maintaining that the answer to the conflict lies in open dialogue rather than shutting down conversations.
Amidst the ongoing criticism, novelist Salman Rushdie and eight other past PEN America presidents urged authors to maintain faith in the organization, while Boylan announced the creation of a working group to review the organization’s activities and make recommendations for future conflicts.
The cancellation of the PEN America literary awards ceremony marks a significant development in the ongoing debate over free speech, the role of cultural organizations, and the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
