For fifteen consecutive years, the food company Newman's Own funded a First Amendment Prize administered by
PEN American Center. The $20,000 award was presented each spring to a
U.S. resident who had fought courageously, despite adversity, to
safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it
applies to the written word.
2006
Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator who was fired from her job
for intelligence whistle-blowing.
Judges: K. Anthony Appiah, Robert Corn-Revere, Nan Graham, Judith Krug, and Roxana Robinson
2005
Joan Airoldi, a librarian and library director in rural Washington State who challenged an FBI effort to search patron records.
Judges: Marjorie Heins, Maureen Howard, Randall Kennedy, Lewis Lapham, and Paul McMasters
2004
Barbara Parsons Lane, one of eight incarcerated writers who were sued by the State of Connecticut after
contributing to Couldn't Keep It To Myself: Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters,
a moving anthology of stories and essays by women who participated in a
creative writing workshop led by Wally Lamb at York Correctional
Institute.
Judges: Stanley Crouch, Lucy Dalglish, Eve Ensler, David Horowitz, Grace Paley
2003
Jerilynn Adams Williams,
a Texas librarian who successfully turned back an attempt to remove
books from circulation at Montgomery County public libraries.
Judges: Philip Gourevitch, Francine Prose, Anthony Romero, Patricia Schroeder, Patricia Williams
2002
Vanessa Leggett,
freelance writer who was jailed in a federal detention center in Texas for 168 days for
refusing to bow to a sweeping subpoena of confidential source materials.
Judges: K. Anthony Appiah, Leon Friedman, Marjorie Heins, Lance Liebman, Bill Maher
2001
Co-recipients:
Deloris Wilson, high school librarian in West Monroe,
Louisiana who fought to preserve access to library materials banned
for sexual content
and
Alberto Sarrain, Cuban-émigré theater producer
who challenged Miami-Dade County's ban on public
funding to arts organizations performing work by
artists currently living in Cuba.
Judges: Joan Bertin, Martin Garbus, Gara LaMarche,
Scott Spencer, Vera Williams
2000
Dr. William Holda,
President, Kilgore College, who defended the production
of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America in
Kilgore, Texas.
Judges: Luc Sante, Mary Gordon, Wendy Kaminer,
Michelle Goffey, Marjorie Heins
1999
Releah Lent, Florida
high school teacher and student newspaper advisor who
has struggled to defend literature in the classroom
and press freedom for students.
Judges: Chris Finan, Margaret Marshall, Terrence
McNally, Victor Navasky, David Remnick
1998
Terrilyn Simpson,
Maine writer and journalist harassed for her attempts
to cover local industrial health hazards.
Judges: Joan Bertin, Leon Friedman, Bette Bao
Lord, Kurt Vonnegut, Sean Wilentz
1997
Nancy Hsu Fleming,
defeated a corporation's attempt to silence her written
concerns about possible groundwater contamination
caused by a local landfill.
Judges: E. L. Doctorow, Cornelius Eady, Judith
Krug, Grace Paley, Kathleen Sullivan
1996
Cissy Lacks, Missouri
high school Creative Writing teacher fired for "failure
to censor her students' creative expression."
Judges: Edward Albee, Julia Alvarez, Caroline
Kennedy, Gara LaMarche, Jessica Mitford
1995
Joyce Meskis, Denver
bookstore owner who successfully challenged a Colorado
law barring stores open to children from selling novels
and art books with sexual content, and who continued
to sell Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses in
1989, donating 25% of proceeds to anticensorship
organizations.
Judges: Alice Hoffman, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,
Tony Kushner, Michael Massing, Oren Teicher
1994
Carole Marlowe, Arizona
drama teacher who resisted district censorship of a
play selected for student production.
Judges: Barbara Handman, Aryeh Neier, Rita Dove,
Camille Paglia, Armistead Maupin
1993
Claudia Johnson restored
literary classics--including Steinbeck, Chaucer,
Aristophanes-- that had been banned from Florida
classrooms; defended student production of A Raisin
in the Sun.
Judges: Rev. Calvin Butts, Frances FitzGerald,
Morley Safer, Nadine Strossen, Barney Frank |
