
Book Bans
The Issue
Today, books in the US are under profound attack. They are disappearing from library shelves, being challenged in droves, being decreed off limits by school boards, legislators, and prison authorities. And everywhere, it is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted. Books by authors of color, by LGBTQ+ authors, by women. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, history. PEN America pushes back against the banning of books and the intolerance, exclusion, and censorship which undergirds it.
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Call to Action

Defend the Freedom to Read

Reading is Not a Crime

Leander, TX Book Banning
News Clips

Washington Post: More books are banned than ever before, as Congress takes on the issue

PBS NewsHour: Nationwide effort to ban books challenges freedom of speech

The New York Times: Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S.

Vox: How the new banned books panic fits into America’s history of school censorship

Salon: Why experts say the banning of "Maus" is not like the censorship of "Huckleberry Finn"

CNN: Texas leads among 26 states with book bans, free speech group says
From PEN America

Report: 1,586 School Book Bans and Restrictions in 86 School Districts Across 26 States

These 4 Florida Bills Censor Classroom Subjects and Ideas

PEN America Calls Restriction of 400 Books in Texas Predictable, Unfortunate

Dohle Book Defense Fund Established to Combat Rising Threats to Free Speech and Open Discourse
Research and Reports

Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students’ First Amendment Rights

Missing from the Shelf: Book Challenges and Lack of Diversity in Children's Literature

Literature Locked Up: How Prison Book Restriction Policies Constitute the Nation’s Largest Book Ban

Protecting the Freedom to Learn: A Banned Books Week Reading List
The Children and Young Adult Books Committee
Books written for children and young adults are among the most frequently contested by groups wishing to remove them from libraries and school curricula. PEN America’s Children’s and Young Adult Books Committee, a Members’ coalition of award-winning writers and illustrators and dedicated readers who meet monthly, has produced the series, PEN Pals, which gives voice to the challenged creators of books for children and young adults through a nuanced exchange that illuminates today’s issues.
From the Archives

An Evening of Forbidden Books, 1982

American Right to Read Colloquium, 1983
