Masha Gessen is stepping down as vice president of American Pen. The reason is an infected brawl in which Russian writers were canceled from a literary event.
The two Ukrainian writers Artem Chapeye and Artem Chekh threatened to cancel their participation. Pen, founded in 1922, said in a statement that the situation arose as a result of "making a mistake" "I felt that I was told to tell these people (the Russian dissidents) that they would not be allowed to sit at the big table but would be directed to the small table at the side," says Gessen.