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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA coalition of publishers and literary agencies are trying to counter a growing trend of harassment against members of the literary community with a new initiative.<\/p>\n
PEN America, the century-old free expression organization, is launching the U.S. Safety Program to provide safety training and other resources for authors amid a wave of censorship efforts around the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have heard from countless authors, illustrators, and translators who are under siege, fending off a steady stream of abuse and threats, online and at book events,\u201d said Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, co-chief executive officer of PEN America. <\/p>\n
\u201cThrough this new program, the literary and publishing community is stepping up together because writers should not be forced to choose between their safety and their voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jodi Picoult (pictured), Jennifer Egan and Lee Child will be among the writers auctioning off character names for future novels, with the proceeds benefiting the safety program (Getty Images for PEN America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nViktorya Vilk, who directs PEN’s digital safety efforts, told The Associated Press<\/em> that she first noticed a rise in harassment against journalists a decade ago, around the time Donald Trump was first elected president, and has seen it spread to writers and educators over the past couple of years. <\/p>\nMaia Kababe, Jon Evison and George Johnson are among the authors of censored works who have spoken out about being harassed and threatened and even physically assaulted.<\/p>\n
Ashley Hope P\u00e9rez, whose young adult novel Out of Darkness<\/em> became a target for censors over its depictions of sex and sexual abuse, says she had to take down her office email and telephone. <\/p>\n\u201cI got hate mail and all kinds of ugly phone calls,\u201d says P\u00e9rez, who teaches at Ohio State University.<\/p>\n
According to PEN, it has raised nearly $1 million through contributions from Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers and Penguin Random House among others. <\/p>\n
This spring, Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Egan and Lee Child will be among the writers auctioning off character names for future novels, with the proceeds benefiting the safety program. <\/p>\n
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Summer Lopez, Abdelfattah Galal, Dinaw Mengestu, Colette Bennett, Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf and Naiera Galal attend the 2025 PEN America Literary Gala at American Museum of Natural History on May 15, 2025 in New York City (Getty Images for PEN America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nPEN will be building on other programs from recent years, including digital safety workshops held for Hachette authors in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have probably never been as many threats to authors\u2019 safety as there are currently in the U.S,\u201d Hachette CEO David Shelley said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud to support this much-needed program from PEN America that will give writers a wide range of professional resources to help them deal with threats to their safety, online and offline.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more A coalition of publishers and literary agencies are trying to counter a growing trend of harassment against members of the literary community with a new initiative. PEN America, the century-old free expression organization, is launching the U.S. Safety Program to provide safety training and other resources for authors amid a wave of censorship efforts around the country. \u201cWe have heard from countless authors, illustrators, and translators who are under siege, fending off a steady stream of abuse and threats, online and at book events,\u201d said Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, co-chief executive officer of PEN America. \u201cThrough this new program, the literary and publishing community is stepping up together because writers should not be forced to choose between their safety and their voice.\u201d Jodi Picoult (pictured), Jennifer Egan and Lee Child will be among the writers auctioning off character names for future novels, with the proceeds benefiting the safety program (Getty Images for PEN America) Viktorya Vilk, who directs PEN̵…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}