100+ translators call for PEN America to relinquish control of the Heim Fund. ‹ Literary Hub

July 18, 2024, 1:32pm

Over 100 of the country’s most prominent literary translators—including Esther Allen, Susan Bernofsky, Peter Cole, Jennifer Croft, Damion Searls, and Natasha Wimmer—have signed a damning open letter to the PEN America Board of Trustees, calling for the transfer of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund endowment to another institution:

We write now out of concern over PEN America’s consistent, serious neglect and mishandling of the grant process and the endowment, its deprioritization of the Fund’s work, and the deleterious impact on the Fund of the ongoing collapse of PEN America’s reputation.

The PEN/Heim Translation Fund was established in 2003 with an endowed gift of $734,000 from esteemed translator Michael Henry Heim and his wife Pricilla Heim, “in response to the dismayingly low number of literary translations currently appearing in English.” The fund has, to date, supported the translation of more than 200 literary works into English, including translations by Chris Andrews of Roberto Bolaño (2005), Annie Tucker of Eka Kurniawan (2013), and Jennifer Croft of Olga Tokarczuk (2015).

“In its twenty-year history, the PEN/Heim has typically been awarded to translations-in-progress which eventually receive wide acclaim,” former PEN/Heim jury chair Nicholas Glastonbury told Lit Hub. “In my experience as a judge, it’s like getting a glimpse into what the literary landscape will look like in a couple years’ time.”

The aforementioned open letter [reprinted in full at the close of this article], sent to the PEN America Board on July 8, begins by detailing how the PEN/Heim Translation Fund has been “at the forefront of the growing enthusiasm for translated literature across the English-speaking world,” before stressing that those successes were “not because of but in spite of PEN America, whose priorities have consistently been shaped, for well over a decade, by English monolingualism and US exceptionalism.”

The letter goes on to accuse current PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel of turning the organization into “a mouthpiece for the current US government,” selling out to corporate interests like Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, displaying “contempt” for PEN International, and presiding over an abusive working environment “that employees escape as quickly as they can” and which has made it “increasingly difficult to recruit [PEN/Heim] jury members.”

Finally, the letter alleges that PEN America has been “parsimonious about disbursing PEN/Heim Endowment funds to the translators it was established to support” and suggests that the recent tarnishing of the PEN America brand has begun to damage other PEN centers around the world. The authors close by offering to work with the Board to find a suitable independent organization “of strong integrity that is genuinely committed to international writing and global literary culture and community, under whose capable, supportive, and reliable management the Fund can at last grow to its fullest potential.”

At the time of writing, the letter has 141 signatures—a number that includes every single chair of the PEN/Heim advisory committee in the grant’s history; two-thirds of all jury members in the grant’s history; and nearly half of all grant recipients in the grant’s history. “Given these stats,” said Glastonbury, ” it feels like a profound vote of no confidence in the organization’s ability to manage the endowment.”

When reached for comment, PEN America sent Lit Hub a statement [reprinted in full at the close of this article] strongly disputing the allegations made in the letter—including the “utterly unsubstantiated claim of neglect or mishandling of the grant process”—and condemning the “deeply offensive, conspiratorial and unfounded personal attacks on our longtime CEO Suzanne Nossel.” The statement goes on to say that the “irresponsible allegations in the letter not only impugn the integrity of the organization they are an insult to our staff and body of work.”

This revolt by its translation partners is just the latest in a series of controversies that have dogged PEN America throughout 2024, primarily stemming from the organization’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza (which led to the cancellation of this year’s PEN America Literary Awards and World Voices Festival), but also with regard to the alleged mismanagement of its Prison Writing Awards, as well as an alleged “chilling” of free expression among its staff (though reported staff discontent should be eased somewhat by today’s announcement from the PEN America Union that a tentative, first bargaining agreement has been reached with management after almost two years of negotiations).

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July 8 Letter to PEN America Board of Trustees:

Dear Trustees of PEN America,

At the 1957 PEN International Congress in Tokyo, the US was represented by John Steinbeck, Ralph Ellison, John Dos Passos, John Hersey and the eminent translator of Japanese Donald Keene; a resolution that placed translation at the heart of the PEN agenda was adopted by all PEN Centers worldwide. A half-century later, Michael Henry Heim anonymously donated $730,000 to PEN American Center because he viewed the worldwide PEN movement as central to the circulation of literature across languages.

Those of us who have volunteered thousands of hours over the past two decades to carry forward the work of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund have a great deal to be proud of. Writer/translators such as Idra Novey, Chris Andrews, Heather Cleary, Johannes Göransson, and Sawako Nakayasu—supported during the first rounds of grant-giving when Heim himself was on the selection committee—have flourished and grown influential. Other writers whose work might once have been deemed unmarketable have gained appreciative readers in English. Among those writers is Eka Kurniawan, whose Beauty Is a Wound, translated from the Indonesian by Annie Tucker, was published to acclaim in 2016 as a result of the PEN/Heim grant. The PEN/Heim Translation Fund has been at the forefront of the growing enthusiasm for translated literature across the English-speaking world. 

All of this was achieved not because of but in spite of PEN America, whose priorities have consistently been shaped, for well over a decade, by English monolingualism and US exceptionalism. We write now out of concern over PEN America’s consistent, serious neglect and mishandling of the grant process and the endowment, its deprioritization of the Fund’s work, and the deleterious impact on the Fund of the ongoing collapse of PEN America’s reputation. 

PEN America CEO, Suzanne Nossel, a former US State Department official, quickly left a position as Executive Director of Amnesty International in 2012 amid concerns that she was turning it into an arm of the State Department that would shill for US-backed wars. In the past two years, the very different treatment by PEN America of Ukrainian and Palestinian writers has made it appear that Nossel succeeded in turning the next NGO she took charge of into a mouthpiece for the current US government. The appearance of sellout to corporate interests she has presided over is just as disturbing. PEN America, which presents itself as a free speech organization devoted, among other things, to combating misinformation, has just staged a lavish gala whose primary funder was Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, one of the planet’s most notorious purveyors of misinformation. Meanwhile, Nossel appears to be handsomely compensated for serving on the “Oversight Board” of Meta—a corporation notorious for platforming misinformation, towards which PEN America has been uncritical. 

For a century, PEN America was built up and championed by some of the most celebrated writers in US literary history, who worked on its behalf without pay. Now PEN America social media approvingly cite claims that were Nossel, a well-paid executive, to comply with demands for new leadership and depart, that would mean  “a world without PEN, without defense of expression…” 

The international community of PEN Centers worldwide took note when PEN America failed to honor or even mention the PEN International centennial in 2021. The contempt for PEN International had been evident long before, however. No sitting PEN America president has attended a PEN International Congress since 2016—not even the online Congresses held during the pandemic.

Amid all this, the work and reputation of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund has also been badly tarnished by PEN America’s mismanagement and an abusive working environment that employees escape as quickly as they can. The staff turnover is so chronic that, over the past decade, virtually every PEN/Heim jury has had members (limited to terms of two years) with more institutional longevity than the salaried full-time administrators on whom the jury is supposed to rely. Consequently, administration of the grants and communication with awardees falls all too often to the jury, rather than to the rapidly vanishing staff. This, in turn, makes it increasingly difficult to recruit jury members. Where the PEN/Heim was once a prestigious award for up-and-coming translators, it has come to have a reputation as unreliable. 

We read the recent reporting on PEN’s Prison and Justice Writing program with a strong sense of recognition. From the beginning, PEN America has been parsimonious about disbursing PEN/Heim Endowment funds to the translators it was established to support and has, instead, held on to as much of the money as it could. In over two decades, the total amount of the individual grants has barely budged, in real terms. The first $4000 grants were given in 2012, and 2024 grants remain at $4000. Meanwhile the stock market has skyrocketed and PEN America’s annual budget has quintupled. PEN America no longer supplies draw reports with the current total amount in the Fund to the PEN/Heim Advisory Committee, though that was established procedure in the first twelve years of the Fund’s existence. 

Such operational mismanagement and institutional neglect, in tandem with current leadership’s abjuring of the mission and work of PEN International, has so devastated the PEN America brand that it is beginning to damage the work of other PEN Centers. One emerging translator recently mentioned that they were hesitant to submit a book for an award from English PEN, due to their mistaken belief that it was the same organization as PEN America.

More than three months ago, a group of influential writers appealed in an open letter for “concrete and lasting change” at PEN America. That change does not appear to be coming. The undersigned, who have been involved with the PEN/Heim Fund as jury chairs and  members, grantees, publishers, and authors, hope that a way can be found of salvaging the Fund, at least, from the managerial and reputational chaos.

We ask that the Board of Trustees arrange to transfer the endowment created by Michael and Priscilla Heim to another organization, one that views the PEN/Heim Translation Fund as a priority. We offer to work with the Board to select a suitable independent organization of strong integrity that is genuinely committed to international writing and global literary culture and community, under whose capable, supportive, and reliable management the Fund can at last grow to its fullest potential. 

Signed,

1. 1. Nicholas Glastonbury, PEN/Heim jury chair, 2022-2024, & jury member, 2020-2022
   2. Tess Lewis, PEN/Heim grantee, 2009; PEN/Heim jury member, 2018-2022; PEN/Heim jury chair, 2022; PEN America Translation Committee cochair, 2017-2018
   3. Peter Constantine, PEN/Heim jury member, 2018, 2019, 2020; PEN/Heim jury chair, 2021
   4. Samantha Schnee, PEN/Heim jury chair, 2018-2020
   5. Michael F. Moore, PEN/Heim jury chair, 2011-2015 
   6. Esther Allen, PEN/Heim jury chair, 2004-2010, PEN/Heim jury member, 2014-2016, PEN America Translation Committee chair, 2002-2006, PEN America board member, 2002-2006
   7. Susan Bernofsky, PEN/Heim grantee, 2005, 2007; PEN/Heim jury member, 2010-2013; PEN America Translation Committee chair, 2011-2014; PEN America board member, 2011-2014
   8. Alex Zucker, PEN/Heim jury member, 2015-2016; PEN America Translation Committee cochair, 2014-2016
   9. Sawako Nakayasu, PEN/Heim grantee, 2006, PEN/Heim jury member, 2020
   10. Idra Novey, PEN/Heim grantee, 2004; PEN/Heim jury member, 2017
   11. Ena Selimović, PEN/Heim jury member, 2023-24
   12. Karen Emmerich, PEN/Heim grantee, 2005; PEN/Heim jury member, 2020
   13. Elisabeth Jaquette, PEN/Heim grantee, 2017; PEN/Heim jury member, 2020-2021
   14. Jeffrey Yang, PEN/Heim jury member, 2008-2011
   15. Kareem James Abu-Zeid, PEN/Heim jury member, 2021 & 2022
   16. Natasha Wimmer, PEN/Heim jury member, 2011-2013 and 2018-2020
   17. Jeremy Tiang, PEN/Heim grantee, 2013; PEN/Heim jury member, 2019-2020
   18. Chip Rossetti, PEN/Heim grantee, 2010; PEN/Heim jury member, 2016, 2017, 2018
   19. Richard Sieburth, PEN/Heim jury member, 2006-2009, and Translation Committee member
   20. Sara Khalili, PEN/Heim 2007 grantee, 2007; PEN/Heim jury member, 2014-2016 
   21. Lara Vergnaud, PEN/Heim grantee, 2013, 2018; PEN/Heim jury member, 2019-2020
   22. Jeffrey Zuckerman, PEN/Heim grantee, 2016; PEN/Heim jury member, 2021 & 2023
   23. Kira Josefsson, PEN/Heim grantee, 2017; PEN/Heim jury member, 2023 & 2024
   24. Shabnam Nadiya, PEN/Heim grantee, 2020; PEN/Heim jury member, 2017
   25. Kaitlin Rees, PEN/Heim jury member 2022-2023, PEN/Heim grantee, 2017
   26. Matvei Yankelevich, PEN/Heim jury member, 2013; PEN America Translation Committee member 
   27. Jenny Wang Medina, PEN/Heim jury member, 2019-2020
   28. Jenny Bhatt, PEN/Heim jury member, 2022-2023
   29. Alex Valente, PEN/Heim jury member, 2022-2024
   30. Thomas J. Kitson, PEN/Heim jury member, 2022-2023
   31. Aaron Coleman, PEN/Heim jury member, 2023-24
   32. Lina Mounzer, PEN/Heim jury member, 2022-24
   33. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, PEN/Heim jury member, 2022
   34. Max Weiss, PEN/Heim jury member, 2019
   35. Aditi Machado, PEN/Heim jury member, 2020-2021
   36. Mary Ann Newman, PEN/Heim jury member, 2018
   37. Canaan Morse, PEN/Heim jury member, 2019
   38. Chad W. Post, publisher of several PEN/Heim grantees
   39. Eric M. B. Becker, PEN/Heim grantee, 2013; PEN Translation Prize jury member, 2018
   40. Jason Grunebaum, PEN/Heim grantee, 2005
   41. Sean Cotter, PEN/Heim grantee, 2013
   42. Mira Rosenthal, PEN/Heim grantee, 2008
   43. Anton Hur, PEN/Heim grantee, 2020; former PEN member
   44. Zoë Perry, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   45. Curtis Bauer, PEN/Heim grantee, 2020
   46. Jacob Moe, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   47. Chris Andrews, PEN/Heim grantee, 2005
   48. Hillary Gulley, PEN/Heim grantee, 2012
   49. Rachael Daum, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   50. Natascha Bruce, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   51. Peter Cole, PEN/Heim grantee, 2004
   52. Emma Ramadan, PEN/Heim grantee, 2016
   53. Adrian Minckley, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   54. Jacob Rogers, PEN/Heim grantee, 2020
   55. Bonnie Huie, PEN/Heim grantee, 2012
   56. Ottilie Mulzet, PEN/Heim grantee, 2019
   57. Antón Lopo, PEN/Heim author grantee, 2020
   58. Corine Tachtiris, PEN/Heim grantee, 2016 
   59. Katharine Halls, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   60. Kevin Gerry Dunn, PEN/Heim grantee, 2020
   61. Soje, PEN/Heim grantee, 2024
   62. Bruna Dantas Lobato, PEN/Heim grantee, 2019
   63. Aaron Robertson, PEN/Heim grantee, 2018
   64. Russell Scott Valentino, PEN/Heim grantee, 2016
   65. Elizabeth Bryer, PEN/Heim grantee, 2017
   66. Chenxin Jiang, PEN/Heim grantee, 2011
   67. Nayereh Doosti, PEN/Heim grantee, 2024
   68. Heather Cleary, PEN/Heim grantee, 2005
   69. Janet Hong, PEN/Heim grantee, 2014
   70. Manjushree Thapa, PEN/Heim grantee, 2017
   71. Emma Lloyd, PEN/Heim grantee, 2019
   72. Bilal Tanweer, PEN/Heim grantee, 2010
   73. Chantal Wright, PEN/Heim grantee, 2009
   74. Adam Mahler, PEN/Heim grantee, 2023
   75. Polly Barton, PEN/Heim grantee, 2017
   76. Jack Hargreaves, PEN/Heim grantee, 2024
   77. Subhashree Beeman, PEN/Heim grantee, 2024
   78. G. M. Goshgarian, PEN/Heim grantee, 2009
   79. Daniel Borzutzky, PEN/Heim grantee, 2013
   80. Fiona Bell, PEN/Heim grantee, 2020
   81. Hope Campbell Gustafson, PEN/Heim grantee, 2019
   82. Allison M. Charette, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   83. Nick Admussen, PEN/Heim grantee, 2017
   84. Philip Metres, PEN/Heim grantee, 2014
   85. Mirgul Kali, PEN/Heim grantee, 2022
   86. Kristine Ong Muslim, PEN/Heim grantee, 2023
   87. Rohan Chhetri, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   88. Alexander Dickow, PEN/Heim grantee, 2018
   89. Musharraf Ali Farooqi, PEN/Heim grantee, 2012
   90. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, PEN/Heim grantee, 2009
   91. Takami Nieda, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   92. Mariam Rahmani, PEN/Heim grantee, 2018
   93. Jennifer Croft, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   94. Joaquín Gavilano, PEN/Heim grantee, 2023
   95. Rachel McNicholl, PEN/Heim grantee, 2016
   96. Annie Tucker, PEN/Heim grantee, 2013
   97. Elizabeth Harris, PEN/Heim grantee, 2013
   98. Ryan Greene, PEN/Heim grantee, 2022
   99. Meg Arenberg, PEN/Heim grantee, 2024
   100. Aftab Ahmad, PEN/Heim grantee, 2012
   101. Jake Syersak, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   102. J. Bret Maney, PEN/Heim grantee, 2014
   103. Piotr Gwiazda, PEN/Heim grantee, 2010
   104. Stephen Epstein, PEN/Heim grantee, 2018 
   105. Bernard Capinpin, PEN/Heim grantee, 2022
   106. Simon Leser, PEN/Heim grantee, 2019
   107. Anita Gopalan, PEN/Heim grantee, 2016; PEN America Translation Committee member
   108. Johannes Göransson, PEN/Heim grantee, 2006
   109. Yasmine Seale, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   110. Sarah Thomas, PEN/Heim grantee, 2011
   111. Julia Sanches, PEN/Heim grantee, 2018
   112. Emily Drumsta, PEN/Heim grantee, 2018
   113. Lucas Klein, PEN/Heim grantee, 2019
   114. Ha-yun Jung, PEN/Heim grantee, 2007
   115. Yvette Siegert, PEN/Heim & NYSCA grantee, 2014
   116. Robyn Creswell, PEN/Heim grantee, 2009
   117. Isabella Corletto, PEN/Heim grantee, 2023
   118. Marcía Benedita Barbieri, PEN/Heim author grantee, 2021
   119. Catherine Nelson, PEN/Heim grantee, 2019
   120. Chris Clarke, PEN/Heim grantee, 2016
   121. Richard Prins, PEN/Heim grantee, 2023
   122. Will Schutt, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   123. May Huang, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   124. Stine An, PEN/Heim grantee, 2023
   125. Rajiv Mohabir, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   126. Edward Gauvin, PEN/Heim grantee, 2013
   127. Dunya Mikhail, PEN/Heim author grantee, 2004
   128. Damion Searls, PEN/Heim grantee, 2008
   129. Stephan Delbos, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   130. Tereza Novická, PEN/Heim grantee, 2015
   131. Zachary Rockwell Ludington, PEN/Heim grantee, 2014
   132. Priyamvada Ramkumar, PEN/Heim grantee, 2023
   133. Margaret Litvin, PEN/Heim grantee, 2023
   134. Jennifer Hayashida, PEN/Heim grantee, 2007 & 2013
   135. Elizabeth Macklin, PEN/Heim grantee, 2005
   136. Sholeh Wolpé, PEN/Heim grantee, 2014
   137. Marilyn Hacker, PEN/Heim grantee, 2008
   138. Ekaterina Petrova, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   139. Wen Huang, PEN/Heim grantee, 2007
   140. Lara Norgaard, PEN/Heim grantee, 2021
   141. Alicia Maria Meier, PEN/Heim grantee, 2016

July 17 Response from PEN America:

This letter was received on July 8 from past grantees and members of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Advisory Board and shared with the PEN America board of trustees. We are grateful for the work of the signatories and appreciate their commitment to the aspirations and impact of the Heim fund in advancing literary translation. Regrettably, the letter repeats and makes baseless claims about PEN America and the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant. We strongly dispute these allegations including the utterly unsubstantiated claim of neglect or mishandling of the grant process. On the contrary, the Heim grant awards have been consistently disbursed according to the terms of the endowment for more than 20 years to a wide-ranging and exceptional cohort of recipients.

The PEN/Heim Translation Fund operates on the basis of an endowment agreement that dictates the total funds available for annual grant prizes. We adhere to terms of this agreement, drawing down the maximum amount of funds to support translations each year. Applications are reviewed by an advisory board with a rotating chair. Some signatories of the letter have complained about the disbursement levels for more than a decade. The response from PEN America has been consistent that we will uphold the intent of the donors and fulfill the terms of the endowment agreement to preserve the availability of these vital resources for years to come. Contrary to the letter’s contention, the competition for the Heim grants is robust and its profile is well-respected in the translation community.

We are very proud that, since its inception, the Heim Fund has provided grants of $2,000–$4,000 to make possible more than 245 translations from over 59 languages, including Armenian, Basque, Estonian, Farsi, Finland-Swedish, Lithuanian, and Mongolian, as well as French, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic. Many of the projects found publishers as a result of being awarded a grant by the Fund, and those books have been recognized widely in outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Granta, The Paris Review, Words Without Borders, The Literary Review, Mandorla, and many others.

The letter also repeats deeply offensive, conspiratorial and unfounded personal attacks on our longtime CEO Suzanne Nossel, including by trafficking in noxious tropes. The irresponsible allegations in the letter not only impugn the integrity of the organization they are an insult to our staff and body of work.

As one of the literary world’s foremost supporters of translators, PEN America takes grave exception to unsubstantiated accusations that its priorities are dictated “by English monolingualism and U.S. exceptionalism.” As evidenced in our support for translation, the PEN World Voices Festival, and a broad array of work with and on behalf of writers all over the world, nothing could be further from the truth. PEN America deeply values its relationships with PEN International and with the network of PEN centers worldwide.