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PEN America calls off awards ceremony after nominees drop out over its response to Israel-Hamas war
Facing widespread unhappiness over its response to the Israel-Hamas war, the writers’ group PEN America has called off its annual awards ceremony. Dozens of nominees had dropped out of the event, which was to have taken place next week.
PEN, a literary and free expression organization, hands out hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes each year, including $75,000 for the PEN/Jean Stein Award for best book. But with nine of the 10 Jean Stein finalists withdrawing, along with nominees in categories ranging from translation to poetry, continuing with the ceremony at The Town Hall in Manhattan proved unworkable.
Among those dropping out was debut novel finalist Rachel Eliza Griffiths, wife of former PEN president Salman Rushdie.
“This is a beloved event and an enormous amount of work goes into it, so we all regret this outcome but ultimately concluded it was not possible to carry out a celebration in the way we had hoped and planned,” PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement Monday.
The cancellation comes as tensions over the war have spread throughout the country, from college campuses to political events to roadways, which at times have been blocked by protesters everywhere from Illinois to California.
Since the war began last October, authors affiliated with PEN have repeatedly denounced the organization for allegedly favoring Israel and downplaying atrocities against Palestinian writers and journalists. In an open letter published last month, and endorsed by Naomi Klein and Lorrie Moore among others, the signers criticized PEN for not mobilizing “any substantial coordinated support” for Palestinians and for not upholding its mission to “dispel all hatreds and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace and equality in one world.”
PEN has responded by citing that it has condemned the loss of life in Gaza, called for a ceasefire and helped set up a $100,000 emergency fund for Palestinian writers. Last week, PEN America President Jennifer Finney Boylan announced that a committee was being formed to review the organization’s work, “not just over the last six months, but indeed, going back a decade, to ensure we are aligned with our mission and make recommendations about how we respond to future conflicts.”
Critics have said that the relief fund is too small and noted that PEN waited until March to endorse a ceasefire, five months after the war began.
Stein finalists had included Justin Torres’ “Blackouts,” winner last fall of the National Book Award for fiction, and Catherine Lacey’s “Biography of X.” At the request of the estate for Jean Stein, an author and oral historian who died in 2017, the prize money will be donated to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
“Jean Stein was a passionate advocate for Palestinian rights who published, supported, and celebrated Palestinian writers and visual artists,” reads a statement from Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Wendy Vanden Heuvel and Bill Clegg, on behalf of the Stein estate. “While she established the PEN America award in her name to bring attention to and provide meaningful support to writers of the highest literary achievement, we know she would have respected the stance and sacrifice of the writers who have withdrawn from contention this year.”
Camille T. Dungy’s “Soil” had been the only remaining Stein award contender.
PEN announced Monday that judges had selected a handful of winners, among them Javier Fuentes’ “Countries of Origin” for debut novel, the PEN/Hemingway award. Playwright/screenwriter Tony Kushner will still receive the PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award. Other honorary awards include the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, given to the late Maryse Condé.
Some authors have called for the resignation of Nossel and other top officials. Lacey, in an Instagram post last week, wrote that PEN needed to “make big changes in the leadership and move into a new era.” More than a dozen awards finalists endorsed a recent letter that demanded Nossel, Boylan and others step down and alleged that PEN had “shown blatant disregard of our collective values.”
A PEN spokesperson said it had no plans to respond to calls for Nossel and others to resign.
PEN’s other high-profile spring events — the “World Voices” festivals in New York and Los Angeles, and the gala at the American Museum of Natural History — will go ahead as scheduled. Klein and Moore are among the writers who have said they will not attend the World Voices festival, which Rushdie helped establish 20 years ago. Rushdie and other former PEN presidents, including Jennifer Egan and Andrew Solomon, had recently published a letter urging the literary community to participate in the festival.
“The festival was conceived amid conflict to draw together diverse authors and thinkers at a time of deepening and deadly geopolitical tension after 9/11,” the letter reads in part.
“We believe in PEN America and the festival and urge that, even at a time of discord, readers and writers will once again find a way to come together to jointly quest for insight and inspiration.”
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Justice Department opens civil rights investigation into Mississippi “Goon Squad” sheriff’s office
The Justice Department on Thursday announced it is opening a civil rights investigation into Rankin County, Mississippi, and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department. A group of the agency’s former officers — who called themselves the “Goon Squad” — pleaded guilty last year to a series of charges for torturing two Black men.
“The public is now well aware of the heinous attack inflicted on two Black men by Rankin County deputies who called themselves the ‘Goon Squad,'” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. “Those officers have since been convicted and sentenced, but we are launching this civil pattern or practice investigation to examine serious allegations that the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department systematically violates people’s constitutional rights through excessive use of force; unlawful stops, searches, and arrests; and discriminatory policing.”
Garland said the allegations against the sheriff’s department include overusing tasers, using racial slurs, entering homes illegally and accusations deputies have “deployed dangerous, cruel tactics to assault people in their custody.”
The Justice Department said Rankin County officials have said they will cooperate with the investigation.
The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department made national headlines when five former deputies, along with one former Richland, Mississippi, police officer, were accused of torturing two Black men — Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker — in January of 2023.
Rogelio V. Solis / AP
All six former officers pleaded guilty to a series of state and federal charges, admitting to breaking into a home without a warrant and torturing Jenkins and Parker for hours, going so far as to shoot one of them in the mouth. The men were also beaten, tased repeatedly and assaulted with a sex toy, prosecutors said.
The group of former officers had arrived at the Braxton, Mississippi, house after a White person called Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputy Brett McAlpin to complain about two Black men staying with a White woman. McAlpin told Christian Dedmon, another deputy, who then texted a group of White deputies internally known for using excessive force who called themselves the “Goon Squad,” according to prosecutors.
McAlpin, Dedmon and fellow former deputies Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke — along with former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield — were all sentenced to decades in prison on both state and federal charges earlier this year.
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COVER STORY: GM’s CEO on electric vehicles: “This is one of the most exciting times in our industry”
Correspondent Kris Van Cleave talks with Mary Barra, General Motors’ second-longest-serving CEO, about the company’s expanding electric vehicle lineup. He also takes a “high-speed” tour of GM’s Milford Proving Ground in Michigan, which has been a hub for automotive innovation for a century, and gets behind the wheel of GM’s soon-to-be-released electric Cadillac Escalade IQ.
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ALMANAC: September 22
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ARTS: How Mad Magazine’s humor created a revolution
Mad Magazine began in 1952 as a comic book that made fun of other comic books – and soon became an institution for mocking authority in all spheres of life, from TV, movies and advertising, to politicians and parents. Correspondent David Pogue visits a new museum exhibition celebrating the humor of Mad, as created by the artists and writers who called themselves “the usual gang of idiots.”
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- Exhibition: “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of Mad Magazine,” at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Mass. (though October 27) | Exhibition magazine
- Cartoonist Steve Brodner
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“Sunday Morning” previews upcoming museum exhibitions.
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MUSIC: On the road with Pearl Jam
Since their debut nearly 35 years ago, Pearl Jam has been one of the world’s most popular and influential rock groups. They’ve produced 12 studio albums (including their latest, “Dark Matter”), while also fighting with their label, refusing to make videos, and suing Ticketmaster. In a rare interview, lead singer Eddie Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament talk with correspondent Anthony Mason about success, friendship, creativity, and giving back to their loyal fans.
PREVIEW: Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder on writing songs while surfing
You can stream Pearl Jam’s latest album, “Dark Matter,” by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):
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THE NEW SEASON: Music
“Sunday Morning” previews some of the most anticipated new releases.
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WORLD: The stakes behind Ukraine’s surprise attack inside Russian territory
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is gambling that his surprise attack into Russia can convince Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the 2½-year-old war which has produced an estimated one million casualties. But Putin’s forces continue to rely on the sheer weight of numbers to grind Ukraine down, and Zelenskyy must depend on America’s deeply divided politics for the aid which he needs to stave off Russian assaults on his front lines and air attacks against his cities. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin talks with former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Miley about the stakes.
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PASSAGE: In Memoriam
“Sunday Morning” remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.
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WORLD: Modern living in the ancient caves of Matera, Italy
In southern Italy’s Basilicata region, caves snake through the hillside town of Matera – the remains of neolithic villages that date back more than 6,000 years. Correspondent Seth Doane visits a town reborn as some of its cliffside caves have been re-envisioned as restaurants, bars and luxury hotels.
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THE NEW SEASON: TV
“Sunday Morning” previews some of the most anticipated new broadcast and streaming choices.
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MOVIES: Demi Moore on resisting a toxic beauty culture
Demi Moore was a troubled member of the “Brat Pack,” who overcame esteem issues and became the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, starring in such films as “Indecent Proposal,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Striptease.” Her latest, “The Substance,” is about an aging TV star who finds a sinister potion that can give her a younger, more perfect version of herself, but at a horrifying price. Moore, now 61, talks with correspondent Tracy Smith about how she had suffered to comply with the entertainment industry’s toxic expectations of beauty for female actresses; and how today she is trying to focus on what really brings her joy.
To watch a trailer for “The Substance” click on the video player below:
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THE NEW SEASON: Movies
“Sunday Morning” previews some of the most anticipated new releases.
THE NEW SEASON: Documentaries
Watch out for these upcoming non-fiction films.
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THE NEW SEASON: Theater
“Sunday Morning” previews some of the most anticipated new shows, on Broadway and across the country.
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FROM THE ARCHIVES: The SS United States (YouTube Video)
On Friday, September 13, 2024, a federal judge agreed to mediation in a years-long rent dispute case involving the SS United States Conservancy, a group that has sought to preserve the fabled ocean liner. The ship may be destined to be sunk to become an artificial reef in Florida. Watch Mark Strassmann’s Feb. 17, 2013 “Sunday Morning” report about the glamorous history of the ship – longer than the Titanic, faster than any ocean liner, ever – and how it came to inhabit a berth in Philadelphia.
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Former President Donald Trump, the biggest shareholder in Trump Media & Technology Group, and other insiders at the Truth Social owner, can finally sell their stakes in the business — just as shares of the stock hit a new low.
Until today, Trump and other insiders have been unable to sell their stakes, even as the shares enjoyed an initial surge after the company’s public offering in March, providing the company a valuation of more than $9.4 billion.
That’s because of a so-called lock-up period during which time Trump and other insiders have been unable to sell. Such agreements are common with initial stock sales and are designed to keep executives from immediately selling, thereby flooding the market with available shares and causing a stock to tumble.
Despite its early stock market gains, Trump Media — which trades under the ticker DJT, the same letters as Trump’s initials — has had a largely bumpy reception from Wall Street.
That path became even rockier on Thursday with DJT shares tumbling 92 cents, or 5.9%, to $14.70, representing a new low for the stock. The lock-up period for Trump and other insiders expired at the end of the trading day, or 4 p.m. Eastern time on September 19.
The slide, which comes even as the market rallied on optimism after the Federal Reserve’s jumbo rate cut, represents an 81% decline from its March high of $79.38.
The lock-up’s expiration now provides Trump and other insiders with a chance to cash out. In Trump’s case, his holdings are worth $1.7 billion — a sizable fortune, yet a far cry from its $6 billion value soon after the company went public.
That slump might not matter to Trump, however, as the former president recently vowed he has “absolutely no intention of selling” his almost 60% stake in the business. But other insiders might be tempted to sell now that the lock-up has ended, with those shareholders ranging from company executives to former “Apprentice” contestants who were earlier involved in the social media business.
Those insiders together own more than 20 million shares, according to the New York Times.
Trump Media & Technology Group didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I’m going to buy more”
Trump Media & Technology Group has attracted thousands of small investors who bought shares as a way to express support for the former president. On Thursday, as the stock sank to a new low, some took to Truth Social to urge the stock upward and profess their faith that DJT shares will see better days.
“I’m going to buy more,” one member of the DJT stock group on Truth Social wrote Thursday. “Prices are ridiculously low … even though I realize nothing is going to happen until Donald J. Trump is back in office.”
Shares of DJT have swung wildly based on news about Trump, as well as the perception of his standing in the presidential race against Vice President Kamala Harris. For instance, after Trump survived an assassination attempt in July, the stock soared 32% as investors recalculated his odds of winning in November.
Since Harris entered the race on July 21, replacing President Joe Biden, Trump Media shares have shed 58% of their value.
That has prompted some analysts to compare DJT to a meme stock, or companies that trade on social media buzz instead of traditional financial measures such as revenue growth and profitability.
Trump, meanwhile, said that he didn’t create Trump Media or Truth Social for the money.
“I did it because I really wanted to have a strong voice,” he said last week. “As long as my voice is on there, it’s going to always be good.”