Suzanne Nossel Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Antonio Ferme editorThe 2022 PEN America Literary Gala featured remarks from Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and other notable figures who emphasized the importance of protecting free speech.“I see freedom of speech as a hope of democracy,” Booker told Variety on Monday night at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Tina Fey will receive the 2023 PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award at 59th annual PEN America Literary Awards. “It’s been a lifelong dream to have my name associated in any way with the great Mike Nichols,” Fey said in statement Wednesday. “Thanks to this award, I can stop working on my ‘Silkwood’ reboot.” Fey is the fifth recipient to ever receive the award, which honors a groundbreaking writer who inspires audiences similar to the late director Mike Nichols. The award will be presented to Fey by her “Saturday Night Live” co-star Rachel Dratch.

NEW YORK -- The founder of Audible Inc., a leading force in the booming audiobook industry, will be honored in May at PEN America's annual gala.Don Katz has been named the literary and human rights organization's Business Visionary Honoree for “his transformative contributions to the world of literature and audio storytelling.”Katz founded Audible in 1995 and guided it through a time of extraordinary growth and change, with digital technology helping audiobooks become one of publishing's most profitable and imaginative formats. Audible, purchased by Amazon.com in 2008, is both a top distributor and producer of audio works, including audio-only releases by Robert Caro, Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor.The 70-year-old Katz is also an award-winning author and journalist whose “Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America” was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.“Don Katz’s unwavering devotion to the written and spoken word has revolutionized the form that merges them," PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement Friday.

Nigeria to help present an award to the author, scholar and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr.“It means a great deal to Skip Gates and to PEN America that Wole Soyinka has decided to join us for what will be an unforgettable occasion,” PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement Wednesday. “Wole Soyinka is a giant in world literature.