Legislators have seized on this moment of raucous protest and rising incidents of both antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus to double down on their yearslong campaign to censor college classrooms. Utah has already passed an anti-DEI law this year as other states take aim at discussions of diversity, gender identity, and “terrorism” on their campuses. Here are six dangerous bills we’re tracking.
Shortly after the movie The Color Purple garnered an Oscar nomination for Danielle Brooks as best supporting actress, its source material, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning novel by Alice Walker, was permanently removed from schools in Clay County, Florida. Some of our most popular and widely viewed movies and TV series were based on material that is now banned in schools across the country.
This week’s Member Spotlight features author of more than 20 books for children and teens Elana K. Arnold. Although her books have been banned in 11 states, Arnold continues to churn out award-winning titles, including The Blood Years, which won the 2024 Sydney Taylor Book Award last month. In this interview, Arnold navigates her experience as a banned author, lends invaluable insight into craft, and shares her idea of the role of the writer in the context of kid lit.
For Black History Month, we compiled an essential reading list, and a list of banned books by Black authors. Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color.
With a razor-sharp wit and a narrative voice brimming with humor and authenticity, it’s no wonder that Chelsea G. Summers’ novel about a female writer turned cannibal went viral. Summers spoke to development coordinator Myka Greene about the inspiration behind A Certain Hunger and her murderous, menopausal, unlikely feminist heroine.
Vanessa Chan’s The Storm We Made marks the arrival of a vital new voice in fiction. In this sweeping epic capturing the human cost of colonization and conflict, a Malayan mother becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII. In conversation with Literary Awards Program Director Donica Bettanin, Chan discussed the difference between being a writer and being an author, the importance of literary community, and why translators are “simply the best people in the world.”
Viktorya Vilk and Jeje Mohamed from our team on Online Abuse Defense and Digital Safety wrote two excellent pieces for Ms. Magazine about how rape threats, slurs, and other harassment are used to silence writers—and what we can do about it. (Ms Magazine)
Kasey Meehan spoke about book bans with Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian. (LA Times)
Meehan also sat down for a wide-ranging interview about book bans nationally and an incident involving police being called to a middle school based on a complaint that an 8th grade class was reading Gender Queer. (The Berkshire Eagle)
Katie Blankenship and Sam LaFrance wrote that a new bill in Florida would seriously undermine teaching training and its accreditation. (Sun Sentinel)
Blankenship was also quoted in an article about another proposed law in Florida that goes too far in banning social media for kids. (Orlando Sun-Sentinel)
Our 2019 report, Losing the News, was cited in a sobering article about whether journalism is headed for an “extinction-level event.” (The Atlantic)
An op-ed by children’s author Jonah Winter on “cancel culture” on the left and right cites our recent Booklash report. (The Wall Street Journal)
Our federal lawsuit against Escambia County was covered in an article about Penguin Random House’s risky fight against book bans. (The Wall Street Journal)
Why I'm Going to Keep Teaching the Truth about Racism in America (CNN)
Republican candidate burns LGBTQ books with a flamethrower in viral video (Newsweek)
Resignations, censures in wake of Hugo Awards controversy (Publishers Weekly)
Tibetan monk arrested for publishing books on Tibet from exiles (RFA Tibetan)
China jails rights activist Li Qiaochu for more than 3 years for subversion (South China Morning Post)
Alabama Pulls out of the American Library Association (WSFA)
"Women are fed these scripts: We have the Maiden, we have the Mother, and we have the Crone. That’s it, that’s what you are allowed to be. But what if you’re not any of them and what if you still want to find meaning and a place in this world?"
- Chelsea G. Summers, in conversation with PEN America
TRENDING @ PENAMERICA
A Florida school district is putting clothes on naked picture book characters in response to complaints from the local chair of Moms for Liberty. Click through to see the “little shorts” Mickey now wears in the night kitchen.
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