Sarah Jessica Parker was honored by the PEN Club for her advocacy of reading freedom.

Actress Sarah Jessica Parker received the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award as an "undisputed champion" of reading freedom for producing a documentary about the U.S. literary censorship crisis and for "elevating underrepresented voices" at her publishing label.

Upon receiving the award at a gala held at the American Museum of Natural History, the Sex and the City star described literature as her "most faithful companion" and said she was "furious" about censorship in her country.

"Today, as an editor, a mother, and a reader, still amazed and in awe of what books can accomplish, I am deeply troubled—not exasperated, no, this occasion calls for a precise word: I am furious about the rising tide of book bans in public school libraries , community libraries, and the recent book ban at the U.S. Naval Academy library," the actress said.

In that sense, Parker asserted that censoring a book limits imagination, curiosity, connection, empathy, and inspiration.

"Libraries are not just buildings with bookshelves, they are... sanctuaries of possibilities ," he added.

Since 2021, PEN America has documented more than 16,000 cases of book bans across the country, censorship the organization says has not been seen since the "Red Scare" of the 1950s , when the U.S. persecuted any hint of communist ideology.

The PEN America Readers' Association honored the artist for The Librarians , a documentary she produced about librarians facing an onslaught of literary censorship from conservative activists, as well as for using her publishing house, SJP Lit, to elevate "underrepresented voices."