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<\/a><\/p>\nDinaw Mengestu attends the PEN America 2026 Spring Literary Gala at American Museum of Natural History on May 14, 2026 in New York City. (Joy Malone\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Dinaw Mengestu, an Ethiopian-American novelist and Bard College professor, told The Atlantic he was stepping down because he believed the PEN report, \u201cA Silent Moratorium,\u201d failed to defend the free-speech rights of participants in the movement to boycott Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the First Amendment that allows all of us to engage in boycotts, not PEN America,\u201d Mengestu told the publication. \u201cPEN America as a free expression organization is supposed to defend that right.\u201d <\/p>\n
The author did not respond to multiple Jewish Telegraphic Agency requests for comment, but in an Instagram post Monday alluded to an interest in creating a new organization to rival the prominent nonprofit, which defends the free expression rights other writers. <\/p>\n
In response to an interview request, PEN sent a statement to JTA saying it was \u201cgrateful\u201d for Mengestu\u2019s leadership and would \u201crespect\u201d his decision. The statement also alluded to PEN\u2019s own past turmoil: \u201cWe tell hard stories, in politically challenging moments, about writers from a range of perspectives, even when it\u2019s uncomfortable for us given our own recent history.\u201d<\/p>\n
In its report, published on its blog, PEN described \u201cJewish and Israeli writers who feel that the mainstream literary world is increasingly shutting them out because of their identity, nationality, or views.\u201d Interview subjects include several Israel critics, as well as literary agents who assert that they face more difficulties signing Jewish authors after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and amid the subsequent war in Gaza. The report also repeatedly cited a JTA report about a 2024 viral list of \u201cZionist\u201d authors to boycott. <\/p>\n
Among other details, PEN\u2019s report revealed that Israeli novelist Etgar Keret and public radio host Ira Glass had cancelled a planned live event in Australia over fears of threats and protest. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis silencing and exclusion of writers is a threat to what PEN America is fundamentally committed to defending: a culture of free expression for all,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n
In addition to the report, PEN also altered its institutional policy toward cultural boycotts, which the organization has long opposed. Although its report on Jewish authors asserted that boycotts \u201cthreaten the free expression rights\u201d of their targets, the revised guidelines say that the group will also defend the right of writers to participate in boycotts. <\/p>\n
Mengestu\u2019s resignation comes at a perilous moment for Jews facing cultural boycotts, both within the standard-bearers of PEN and elsewhere. PEN\u2019s Jewish former longtime CEO stepped down in 2024 following months of blowback from rank-and-file authors who felt the organization was insufficiently critical of Israel and caused PEN to cancel a festival for global authors. <\/p>\n
Since the leadership change, PEN leadership has published and retracted a condemnation of a boycott effort trained at an Israeli comedian and also published a report cataloguing Israel\u2019s \u201ccultural destruction in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mengestu had assumed the role of board president in 2025. But PEN\u2019s report about Jewish and Israeli writers on Thursday, he wrote, \u201cmakes clear that [change] will not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Anti-Defamation League said it was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d by Mengestu\u2019s resignation Monday. \u201cFreedom of expression means opposing efforts to boycott, silence, or exclude writers because of their identity or nationality,\u201d the organization tweeted, saying that the author\u2019s decision to leave PEN over his objections to the report on Jewish authors \u201csends a chilling message.\u201d Jewish authors also objected.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine running a free expression org and resigning because it refuses to blacklist authors based on their nationality,\u201d the author David Zweig wrote on X, musing whether Mengestu would object to boycotting authors from his birth country: \u201cEthiopia doesn\u2019t exactly have a good human rights record.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to The Atlantic\u2019s story that quoted sources from inside PEN who were critical of his resignation, Mengestu wrote a lengthy Instagram post Monday in which he stated, \u201cThis piece is about trying to suppress constitutionally protected speech,\u201d criticized past PEN reports critical of the BDS movement, and added, \u201cWhat PEN America fails to understand is that boycott is a form of dialogue.\u201d <\/p>\n
He announced his intention to \u201chelp make something better,\u201d receiving affirmative comments from notable authors including Viet Thanh Nguyen, Angela Flournoy, Jewish pro-Palestinian novelist Jess Row and Pulitzer Prize-winner Benjamin Moser, author of a forthcoming history of Jewish anti-Zionism.<\/p>\n
Other Jewish authors on the left were among those defending Mengestu\u2019s decision to step down.<\/p>\n
\u201cDinaw is one hundred percent correct that this kind of fake victim propaganda can be used to support anti-Boycott legislation which violates the First Amendment and is everywhere as popular support for Palestinians grows,\u201d author Sarah Schulman wrote on Facebook. Calling PEN\u2019s blog about Jews \u201cone of those fake anti-semitism pieces,\u201d Schulman added, \u201cIf PEN wants to survive, they have to get out of the Israel\/Zionism business.\u201d<\/p>\n