Anthony Johnson

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. PEN America promotes social justice through its programs to defend free expression rights and its initiatives to amplify the voices and ideas of communities too often ignored or misrepresented. It produces original research, conducts advocacy campaigns, stages consequential public programming, and celebrates the literature of eminent and emerging writers. The Leading Edge Fellow will join PEN America as a Research and Advocacy Manager to lead its work on the Right to Read in American Prisons project. This project will include a formal articulation of the right to read in American prisons; a comparative analysis of book bans and appeals processes by state; development of proposed ‘best practices’ around access to literature in prisons; and the launch of an advocacy campaign that engages partner organizations, responds to prison book banning cases, and advances PEN America’s goal of securing the right to read in prisons.