Prize-winning author Phil Klay has been named the new president of PEN America, taking on the role as the literary and free expression organization continues to be torn by disagreements stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.
Klay succeeds Dinaw Mengestu, who resigned in July in the wake of a PEN report that drew upon interviews with dozens of Jewish and Israeli writers about the “widening cultural isolation” they had faced since the war began. Mengestu, who had been president for less than a year, posted on Instagram that the report's emphasis showed a continued trend of bias against Palestinians and undermined his belief that PEN was capable of changing.
