The free expression group PEN America has named two longtime senior employees as co-chief executives, 16 months after its previous leader departed amid intense controversy over the group’s response to the war in Gaza.
Summer Lopez and Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, who had been serving as interim leaders, will take the helm effective immediately. Lopez, who joined PEN America in 2017, had previously served as its chief program officer for free expression. Rosaz Shariyf, who joined in 2015, had most recently been its head of literary programming.
In a joint interview, they said their goal was to staunchly defend writers and free expression at a moment when threats, in the United States and around the world, had become “existential.”
“Whether it’s the cultural sector or the press or higher education, we have seen a lot of powerful institutions obey in advance,” Lopez said. “PEN America is not going to do that. We are going to speak up, we’re going to call out what is happening and we will keep fighting back.”
Founded in 1922, PEN America has traditionally focused on the literary world, with particular emphasis on defending writers in authoritarian regimes. In recent years the group, which has 68 employees and an annual budget of $19.3 million, has increasingly taken on threats to free speech in the United States, including book bans, online harassment and efforts to restrict teaching.
In a recent report, PEN America described a tightening “web of political and ideological control” over universities during the second Trump administration. This week, the group led a delegation of prominent writers to Texas A&M to protest policies restricting teaching on race and gender, which has forced revisions to hundreds of courses.
“That feels like the unique thing we can contribute in this moment,” Lopez said, referring to letting literary figures take the lead.
Even as it has defended free expression, PEN America has been roiled by controversy over its response to the war in Gaza. In the spring of 2024, it canceled its annual book awards and its global literary festival in the face of a boycott by writers who accused it of anti-Palestinian bias.
Later that year, the group’s longtime chief executive, Suzanne Nossel, left and the group announced a national search to replace her.
The novelist Dinaw Mengestu, the organization’s president and board chair, said the search committee had considered nearly 50 candidates. It ultimately went with the unusual dual leadership, he said, because of Lopez and Rosaz Shariyf’s track record of bringing together the two sides of the group’s work.
“We wanted to see PEN America not as two parts, but as one whole,” Mengestu said. “They understand that the relationship between free expression and literature had to be integral.”
Last spring, the group’s annual literary festival, awards and annual gala, a rare night of old-fashioned glamour on the New York literary calendar, were held as usual. Lopez and Rosaz Shariyf said they had spent much of the past year reaching out to people with different points of view and rebuilding trust.
“This was a time when we needed to listen to everyone,” Rosaz Shariyf said.
In September, the group issued a report on what it described as “the catastrophic destruction of Gaza’s cultural heritage” as a result of “Israel’s military action,” which it said “amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” But parsing the free expression issues surrounding the Gaza war, which began after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, remains contentious.
This month, in an unusual move, PEN America walked back a statement defending the free expression rights of Guy Hochman, an Israeli comedian who had two U.S. tour dates abruptly canceled following accusations of inciting violence against Palestinians.
The original statement, which has been removed from the group’s site, said Hochman had made “dehumanizing social media posts” celebrating Palestinian casualties. But demanding that performers adhere to any “ideological litmus test” to be allowed onstage, it said, was “a profound violation of free expression.”
Five days later, the group posted a notice saying it was retracting the statement, noting that Hochman “has been accused by advocacy organizations of incitement to genocide in Gaza.”
(In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hochman accused critics of hypocrisy. “I glorify my army. I glorify victory. That’s true,” he said. “But the hypocrisy is unbelievable. In Iran, thousands are killed and nobody cares.”)
Lopez and Rosaz Shariyf said they had each approved both the original statement and the retraction. The original did not “meet our standards,” Rosaz Shariyf said.
Lopez said the reversal did not mean the group was retreating from robust defense of free speech, even when it offends.
“Our approach is also we can defend people’s right to engage in deeply offensive and hateful speech,” she said. She added, “We defend the rights of people whose rights are contrary to our values all the time.”
Mengestu said he found their willingness to retract admirable.
“That shows leadership that is very deliberate and thoughtful and wants to make sure their work is held to the highest possible standard,” he said. “I take comfort in that.”
Marc Tracy contributed reporting.
Jennifer Schuessler is a reporter for the Culture section of The Times who covers intellectual life and the world of ideas.
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