Founded in 1922, PEN America, a non-profit organization aiming to be at the “intersection of literature and human rights to protect expression in the United States and worldwide,” according to their website, has a new president with local ties.
The new president of PEN America and chair of their Board of Trustees is Dinaw Mengestu, the director of Bard College’s Written Arts Program and the founder and director of the Center for Ethics and Writing at the school.
He was elected to the position for a two-year term in December 2025, succeeding Jennifer Finney Boylan.
Going into his tenth year at Bard College, he joined PEN America as a member of the board in 2016 but has been a part of the organization since 2007.
Being at Bard is the longest he’s stayed in a position and noted he’s found “a sense of real permanence” there.
Expanding on his work
Mengestu emphasized the work he does for both are “deeply intertwined,” and later said the work in Bard’s writing programs “aligns” with PEN’s core values — uniting writers, being champions of the freedom to write, advocates on free expression challenges and campaigning on policy issues and on behalf of writers, as well as journalists, under threat.
“We think a lot about global free expression and how that’s under threat in many different areas and in many different ways, both domestically and internationally,” Mengestu said.
Although free expression on such a large scale can be difficult to conceptualize, but when it gets closer to home, the more “intimate” it begins to feel, he said.
The mid-Hudson Valley, an “increasingly diverse” community, according to Mengestu, has already suffered the loss of free expression.
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