Phil Klay Named PEN America President as Israel-Hamas Rifts Persist
Author Phil Klay is the new president of PEN America, succeeding Dinaw Mengestu, who resigned over a controversial report on Jewish and Israeli writers.
Phil Klay, the National Book Award-winning author and Iraq War veteran, has been appointed president of PEN America, stepping into a leadership role at an organisation still navigating internal divisions over the Israel-Hamas war.
Klay takes over from Dinaw Mengestu, who stepped down in July after less than a year in the post. Mengestu's resignation followed the publication of a PEN report based on interviews with dozens of Jewish and Israeli writers about what it described as their widening cultural isolation since the war began. In a social media post, Mengestu said the report's framing reflected a persistent bias against Palestinians and undercut his confidence that PEN could reform itself. He said he had argued that the organisation would defend free expression equitably, but that the report made clear this would not happen.
The tensions are not new. Two years ago, dissatisfaction with PEN's response to the war — including criticism that its leadership was slow to condemn the deaths of Palestinian writers and journalists — led to the cancellation of its annual awards ceremony and the "World Voices" festival after participants withdrew. Suzanne Nossel, then chief executive, has since departed and been replaced by co-CEOs Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf and Summer Lopez.
Klay, whose debut story collection "Redeployment" won the National Book Award for fiction in 2014, has taken positions on the conflict from multiple angles. He has voiced support for the PEN study on Israeli and Jewish writers while also criticising Israel's conduct toward Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. In August, he described the violence as unchecked, indiscriminate and targeting innocent civilians, and earlier this year he wrote an essay arguing that U.S. support for Israel's war had become indefensible.
In a statement released by PEN, Klay said he held a broad faith in cultural exchange, in sustained efforts to understand other people, other cultures and other ideas — including uncomfortable ones — and in building a more open and egalitarian public square.