PEN America today announced the selection of award-winning novelist, essayist and professor Phil Klay to serve as its president and chair of the board of trustees of the 104-year-old writers organization whose mission is to celebrate literature and defend freedom of expression.
Klay is the author of the National Book Award-winning short story collection “Redeployment,” the novel “Missionaries” and the essay collection “Ground.” In addition to the National Book Award for Fiction, “Redeployment” won the National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Prize for best debut work in any genre and was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times.
Klay’s first novel, “Missionaries,” was named one of the Wall Street Journal’s best 10 books of 2020, and was listed by former President Barack Obama’s as one of the best books of the year. His nonfiction work won the George W. Hunt, S.J., Prize for Journalism, Arts & Letters in the category of Cultural & Historical Criticism in 2018.
In his writing, Klay, a Marine Corps veteran, has critiqued the U.S.’s forever wars and explored their moral and cultural consequences. Klay is director of the Fairfield University MFA in Creative Writing, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker.
“Phil Klay is a writer who wrestles with moral complexity, challenges orthodoxies, and pushes us all to consider what it takes to maintain our humanity during times of upheaval and division,” said Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, PEN America’s co-CEO. “He is coming to this role with a deep respect for writers as truth seekers, a principled commitment to free expression, and a firm belief in the power of literature to foster a more just world. In this moment of critical threats to free speech and democracy, we are grateful for his leadership.”
A longtime PEN America member and a trustee since 2025, Klay said the organization’s mission has become increasingly urgent amid threats to expression, the free press and academic freedom.
“As a writer, free expression is the lifeblood of what we do, and that means not simply a narrow legalistic view of the First Amendment, but a broad faith in cultural exchange, in sustained efforts to understand other people, other cultures and other ideas, including uncomfortable ones, and to the creation of a more open and egalitarian public square,” he said.
“That means keeping PEN America an organization writers recognize as their own, and it means continued dialogue with our community, including writers, members, and partners.”
Klay was appointed as president by PEN America’s board of trustees per its bylaws to fill a vacancy that arose in July. He steps into the leadership role at a time when PEN America has intensified its fight against censorship by challenging the Trump administration’s assaults on free speech, tracking more than 23,000 public school book bans since 2021, condemning the wave of state laws that have cast a web of control over higher education, and advocating on behalf of writers at risk in the U.S. and around the globe. In addition to supporting emerging writers, this fall, the organization is launching a U.S. Author Safety Program to help protect writers facing harassment and threats driven by a pernicious wave of censorship.
“In the end, freedom of expression is secured through a deep commitment to human equality and human dignity. If we cannot speak, we cannot be known, and we cannot be fellow citizens together. Freedom of expression is about creating a world in which individuals, though prone to as much folly and cruelty as they are to beauty and goodness, can be fully human.”
Tracy Higgins, executive vice president of PEN America’s board of trustees, said: “Phil Klay possesses both the courage and the clarity PEN America needs in its next president. He recognizes that in a time of profound political division, PEN America must maintain a space where writers are free to disagree. We must not only foster conversation but also tolerate dissent if we are to progress toward a better understanding of ourselves and our world. PEN America’s board of trustees is delighted to have him take on this role.”
Former PEN America president Ayad Akhtar said: “I’ve known and admired Phil Klay for a decade — his books, his mettle and grace, his commitment to principle, his steadfastness in the face of tumult and conflict. At a time when freedom of the imagination and thought is not only under attack from every human quarter, but increasingly from the non-human as well, Phil is a natural choice to serve as president of PEN America. He understands that bonds thicker than point of view are necessary to build our communities and our resistance. Literature and advocacy are not synonymous, but at their best, they are handmaidens. Phil understands this as well as anyone I know.”
Klay is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He served in Iraq’s Anbar Province from January 2007 to February 2008 as a Public Affairs Officer. After being discharged, he received an MFA from Hunter College.
About PEN America:
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
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