PEN America: Open Letter from Writers Urging Release of Iranian Poet

I am very proud to have signed this open letter from PEN America expressing solidarity with jailed Iranian poet Ali Asadollahi. With permission, it is reproduced in full below. Read the original letter here and the press release here.

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We, the undersigned writers, scholars, journalists, artists, activists, and other allies, are writing to urge the immediate release of poet and translator Ali Asadollahi. He is one of multiple writers and individuals jailed for their peaceful expression and dissent throughout Iran. 

Asadollahi’s arrest occurred in the context of a mass protest movement that began on December 28, 2025, leading to a bloody crackdown by the Iranian government that dramatically escalated on January 8, during which thousands were killed and more than 50,000 people have been arrested. The violence was enabled by a pre-planned and almost complete internet blackout, and the continuing communications shutdown has made documentation and information-sharing about the scale of the massacre extremely difficult. In this overall environment of extreme and ongoing repression, Iran’s creative and literary community continues to be singled out as a particular target for reprisal. Both recent and long-standing detainees in Iran—including writers, artists, activists, and journalists—face acute risk. 

Ali Asadollahi was detained violently in the middle of the night on January 24. Security forces confiscated his devices and papers, and he was taken to an undisclosed location. He had received anonymous threats in early January warning of his imminent arrest, indicating that he was being targeted. Allowed just several brief phone calls from detention and denied access to a lawyer, Asadollahi is being held in Evin prison, where he has faced multiple lengthy interrogation sessions and been subjected to physical abuse and pressure to make a forced confession. To date, there is no clear basis for his arrest, and no potential charges have been disclosed. Asadollahi suffers from health concerns, and was recently hospitalized for a lung infection, thus placing him at greater risk. 

Asadollahi is a member and former secretary of the Iranian Writers’ Association (IWA). He is a leading poet of his generation, with six widely read poetry collections, and his literary output sparks with innovative poetic forms and a deep sense of political consciousness. His work has been translated into English, Italian, and French, and has been published in a number of prestigious journals including Roanoke Review, Alchemy, Palaver, and The Persian Literature Review. Asadollahi has a history of persecution by Iranian authorities. He was previously arrested in November 2022 during the Mahsa (Zhina) Amini uprising, and was detained for several months, before international pressure contributed to his release in February 2023.

Asadollahi’s arrest is not an isolated example of the current crackdown on writers. On January 8, writer and IWA board member Yousef Ansari and another participant were arrested after reading a statement and poetry at a memorial ceremony for Baktash Abtin, a poet, filmmaker, and IWA board member who died in custody four years ago after delays in receiving medical treatment in prison. Ansari remains in detention despite being issued bail. A recent IWA report notes the arrests of writer and theater director Hamidreza Akhundnasiri in Kashan; writer, researcher, and teacher Boroumand Azamipour in Kermanshah; writer and assistant theater director Malika Malek Mohammadi; and Ghorban Behzadian-Nejad, a researcher, translator, and signatory of the “Statement of the 17.” 

Reports in recent weeks suggest that Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, a screenwriter and director, have been threatened by security forces with imprisonment and the confiscation of their property, and Masoud Yousef Hasarchin, a translator, was arrested without any clear charges. Davoud Mohammad-Nia, a Bakhtiari poet and writer who incorporated political themes in his writing, was arrested and jailed in Isfahan in early January, and remains in detention in poor conditions. Numerous writers and artists have been killed in the protests; due to the communications blackout and risks involved, the true scope of detentions and deaths of writers remains impossible to verify accurately. 

According to PEN America’s 2024 Freedom to Write Index, Iran is the second-worst jailer of writers globally, and since the June military conflict between Iran and Israel, an increasing number of writers, scholars, poets, and translators have been detained or received summonses, while others have faced extrajudicial threats or additional charges. Past patterns in Iran demonstrate that periods of widespread unrest are accompanied by heightened abuses inside detention facilities, where known dissidents are at increased risk of torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and other forms of ill-treatment. Those held in solitary confinement and denied contact with the outside world are particularly vulnerable. 

We join together to strongly condemn Ali Asadollahi’s arrest and stand in solidarity with him and with other writers, alongside all of the courageous Iranians who have been arrested or killed for expressing dissent. We call for his immediate release, as well as the release of other writers, journalists, human rights defenders, and others who have been jailed for their peaceful expression and activism. And we urge an immediate end to state violence and the persecution of writers and intellectuals, which is undertaken purposefully and preemptively in order to silence voices of dissent and to crush cultural and intellectual resistance. 

Organizational Signatories:

PEN America

PEN Sydney

Bellingham Review

Hypertext Magazine

Sky Island Journal

Individual Signatories:

Aatish Taseer

Abbas Milani

Adam Shatz

Ahmed Naji

Amir Ahmadi Arian

Amir Soltani

Amy Reading

Amy Tan

Ann Tyler

Aparna Halpé 

Arash Azizi

Ariel Dorfman

Art Spiegelman

Ava Homa

Ayad Akhtar

Ayelet Waldman

Azar Nafisi

Azareen VanderVliet Oloomi

Bänoo Zan

Behrouz Boochani

Charles Yu

Chowra Makaremi

Claire Luchette

Claire Messud

Colm Tóibín

Colum McCann

Cy Strom

Daniel James Sharp

Daniela Sepehri

David Henry Hwang

David J. Remnick

Diane Woodcock

Dina Nayeri

Elif Shafak

Fatemeh Ekhtesari

Fatemeh Shams

Fereshteh Molavi

Francine Prose

Gary Shteyngart

Geoffrey Young

George Saunders

Ghazaleh Zarrinzadeh

Howard A. Rodman

J.M. Coetzee

James Hannaham

James Lasdun

Janet Afary

Jay McInerney

Jeffrey Eugenides

​​Jennifer Finney Boylan

Jessica Hagedorn

Jhumpa Lahiri

John Green

Jonathan Franzen

Jonathan Lethem

Jorie Graham

Judith Butler

Judyth Hill

Julie Rak

Kate Marshall Flaherty 

Katerina Vaughan Fretwell

Katharine Wallerstein 

Khaled Hosseini

Kourosh Ziabari

Krystyna Poray Goddu

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Kylie Moore Gilbert

Lev Grossman

Louise Erdrich

Lydia Davis

Ma Thida

Mansour Noorbakhsh 

Margaret Atwood

Marie Arana

Mary Karr

Mehdi Mousavi

Melissa Chan

Michael Wolfe

Molly Crabapple

Molly Ringwald

Nayereh Tohidi

Nicole Krauss

Parvin Ardalan

Patty Paine

Peter Sacks

Peyman Jafari

Philip Gourevitch

Phil Klay

Rana Ayyub

Rita Dove

Robert Pinsky

Roya Hakakian

Salil Tripathi

Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Phillips

Shih Yen Chang

Sholeh Wolpé

Siavash Saadlou

Siri Hustvedt

Sonja Greckol

Stacy Schiff

Stella Nyanzi

Summer Brenner

Susan Choi

Susan Nguyen

Tara Westover

Tina Chang

Tobias Wolff

Tom Healy

Victoria Redel

Vincent Katz

Wajahat Ali

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