Writing to your favorite authors is a great idea, no matter the time of year or the occasion. Authors, like all of us, like to hear that their work has had a positive impact on the world and on readers, specifically. This can be especially difficult if an author’s book has been challenged or banned. … Continue reading The Dear Banned Author Letter Writing Campaign
Every year during Banned Books Week, we try to feature a letter from an author responding to the challenge to, or attempt to ban their books. This year’s letter come from American novelist, memoirist, and lover of words and letter, Pat Conroy. Conroy was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1945, the eldest of 7 children. … Continue reading Banned Books Week: A Letter From Pat Conroy
In honor of Banned Book Week, today, we take a look at five books that have recently been officially challenged or publicly denounced, and their authors responses to them, and why #weneeddiversebooks in our lives, and in our libraries: Eleanor and Park: When it was first released in 2013, Rainbow Rowell’s first YA novel got a huge … Continue reading Five Book Friday: The Banned Books Week Edition
John Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire, he published his first book, Setting Free the Bears in 1968. He studied with Kurt Vonnegut at the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, but, as his books continued to meet with great critical reception–and very little money, he … Continue reading Banned Books Week: “Real readers finish books, and then judge them”
When we talk about Banned Books, we very often talk about the people who attack books, and the people (or institutions) who actually ban them. But we also need to consider the readers from whom these books are taken. In reading more about banned books and their impact, it becomes apparent very quickly how desperately these … Continue reading Sherman Alexie on fighting monsters: A Banned Book Week Post
In 2010, Courtney Summers published a book titled Some Girls Are. The novel tells the story of Regina, a member of her high school’s most elite and vicious peer group–until she reports a sexual assault involving her best friend’s boyfriend. Then Regina finds out what it’s like to be on the outside, on the receiving end … Continue reading “Some Girls Are”…A success story for Banned Books Week
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.(Oscar Wilde) There are any number of topics one can address when one sits down to write about Banned Books Week. We can talk about who bans books, why they want those specific books banned, or how librarians, booksellers, and educators respond to those reasons. … Continue reading Banned Books Save Lives