Claim: The Pen League (Arabic: الرابطة القلمية‎‎ / ALA-LC: al-rābiṭah al-qalamīyah) was the first Arabic-language literary society in North America and they had been working closely since 1911.
Evidence: The Pen League (Arabic: الرابطة القلمية‎‎ / ALA-LC: al-rābiṭah al-qalamīyah) was the first Arabic-language literary society in North America, formed initially by Nasib Arida and Abd al-Masih Haddad in 1915 or 1916, and subsequently re-formed in 1920 by a larger group of Mahjari writers in New York led by Kahlil Gibran. They had been working closely since 1911.