PEN America Los Angeles serves as a local hub for free expression and literary arts programming. Through training, toolkits, fellowships, grants, and awards, the organization serves emerging and established writers as both artists and advocates.

As a leader in free expression advocacy, the organization offers a variety of resources on topics critical to writers and artists in the digital age, including defending against online harassment, combatting disinformation, and dealing with safety risks and censorship. We engage in rapid-response advocacy for free expression protections, and raise awareness about individual writers at risk. In Southern California, PEN America Los Angeles recently initiated a campaign for the reinstatement of banned books in Burbank Unified School District, after activating an informal coalition requesting designation of the literary community as recipients for COVID-19 relief, as captured in a May 2020 open letter to the Mayor and Los Angeles City Council. These initiatives reflect PEN America Los Angeles’ unique position at the intersection of literature and human rights and address a critical need for networked coordination during these challenging times.

In addition to advocacy, PEN America Los Angeles is dedicated to the celebration and preservation of the literary movements of the region through events and programs for all ages. From PEN Out Loud, a now-virtual conversation series dedicated to amplifying diverse voices and convening vital conversations with writers and activists, to PEN In The Community, which brings professional writers into underserved schools and communities, PEN America Los Angeles has been dedicated to nurturing the literary and storytelling traditions of the Los Angeles region since 1996. In addition to the annual World Voices Festival and the PEN America Literary Awards, a signature program continues to be the Emerging Voices Fellowship, an immersive mentorship program which serves early-career writers from communities underrepresented in publishing.