(NEW YORK)— With new figures revealing a stunning increase in school book bans during the 2023-2024 school year— over 10,000 instances nationwide— PEN America is mobilizing writers, readers and activists for Banned Books Week Sept. 22-29 to stand against censorship and support the freedom to read for all.
The writers and free expression organization, with partners nationwide, will host talks, readings, summits for young people, an art show, and other events over the week. Events will feature award-winning authors Rex Ogle, Elana K. Arnold, Abdi Nazemian, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan La Sala, journalists Kelly Jensen of Book Riot and Mike Hixenbough of NBC News, and Grammy-winning songwriter Joanie Leeds, who will perform songs in Coral Gables, Florida from her album FREADOM based on banned childrens’ books. In addition, conversations open to the public will be held with librarians, booksellers, educators, scholars on censorship, and literacy and literary advocates leading the fight against book bans. Events will be held in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Coral Gables, Florida, Austin and Dallas, Texas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Farmington, Utah. Magic City Books, a Tulsa bookstore, will exhibit paper weavings created from shredded banned books by the artist and activist Ellis Angel in a show titled The Censor’s Cut: Weavings for Intellectual Freedom.
All scheduled events are listed here.
This year, PEN America’s preliminary documentation of book bans is showing a dramatic increase in books removed from school classrooms and libraries– over 10,000 instances of bans during the full 2023-2024 school year (July 2023-June 2024), with Florida and Iowa at the front. Researchers expect this number—more than twice over the previous school year— will rise even higher as the count approaches its final stage before release later this fall. This wave of censorship targeted books from biographies and history books to young adult novels and picture books. In a heightened tactic of censorship, PEN America found that increased hyperbolic rhetoric about “porn in schools” was used to justify banning books about sexual violence, LGBTQ+ identities, and books by women and nonbinary authors.
On September 23, PEN America will release a memo examining book bans during the 2023-2024 school year. Final figures on banned books state by state and district, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the content of banned books, will be released later in October alongside PEN America’s Annual Index of School Book Bans, a searchable database of all instances of books banned by school districts. In addition, PEN America is documenting the continued trend that shows how books— namely romantic fiction and books by women— are being targeted by the conservative censorship movement based on falsehoods about “pornography” in schools. Similarly, the book banning movement has continued to target books about race and racism, books by authors of color, and books with LGBTQ+ characters or themes. The result is that books are being removed that can reflect students’ real experiences, expose them to new worlds and perspectives, or help them cope with trauma and violence. .
“When PEN America began documenting the rise of book banning by schools in 2021, few of us could have imagined the censorship frenzy by a vocal minority creating a crisis of this magnitude,” said Kasey Meehan, director, Freedom to Read at PEN America. “Even as polls show most Americans reject book bans, the number of book bans have made a stunning leap from one school year to the next. This Banned Book Week demands that we join together to turn the page on book bans by saying ‘No more.’ The rising generation of students are being robbed of books that can nurture and guide them in their formative years simply because a misguided movement has caught the ear of politicians eager to gin up culture wars. Enough is enough.”
September 22 to 29, is National Banned Books Week in which PEN America will join advocacy organizations like the American Library Association, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Little Free Library, National Council of Teachers of English, National Coalition Against Censorship, PFLAG, and many more individuals and groups to increase awareness about censorship attempts and to defend of the freedom to read.
Since the organization began tracking bans in 2021, dozens of states have passed or debated laws that restrict the freedom to read, leaving teachers and librarians feeling pressure to limit children’s access to information. PEN America has mobilized regular citizens to push back against this censorship and the intolerance and exclusion that lies beneath it.
Visit our guide to learn how you can fight back against book bans in your community.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.