FIGHT BACK AGAINST BOOK BANS WITH PEN AMERICA
According to PEN America’s latest report, Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor, book bans increased 33% in the 2022-23 school year.
The report highlights the disproportionate number of bans occurring in Florida — where 40 percent of all book bans took place in the 2022-23 school year — and shows how state legislation and coordinated pressure campaigns from local groups and individuals have driven mass restrictions on access to literature.
Since PEN America started tracking public school book bans in July 2021, we have recorded nearly 6,000 instances of banned books. This includes 3,362 book bans affecting 1,557 unique titles during the 2022-23 school year. While the effects of state legislation and the influence of local groups and individual activists in supercharging book bans are not new, the growing effect they are having on book access in schools nationwide presents a cause for serious concern.
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