PEN America’s president has resigned after the free speech group released a report detailing how Israeli and Jewish writers have faced “rising isolation and exclusion” in the aftermath of 2023’s Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
The Ethiopian novelist Dinaw Mengestu had held the organization’s leadership position since December 2025. He told The New York Times that Pen America’s report, which examines the impacts of cultural boycotts, unfairly maligns the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, an attempt to economically isolate Israel.
The July 9 report, titled “A Silent Moratorium,” was the work of three authors. They include PEN America’s editorial director Lisa Tolin, a veteran of NBC News and the Associated Press, as well as its chief communications officer Geraldine Baum, a longtime former staff writer for The Los Angeles Times who earned a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service early in her career at Newsday.
“In this piece, we share the stories of Jewish and Israeli writers who feel that the mainstream literary world is increasingly shutting them out because of their identity, nationality, or views,” the authors wrote, explaining the report was based on interviews with more than 30 Israeli and Jewish writers and literary professionals. “They describe an environment that has impacted their reputations and livelihoods, led people to self-censor, and created an overall chilling of their ability to write and create freely. This silencing and exclusion of writers is a threat to what PEN America is fundamentally committed to defending: a culture of free expression for all.”
