From Red Wine & Blue: Join banned book authors

Book bans aren’t in the news like they used to be, and the number of book bans documented by PEN America this school year has dropped 40% from last year.¹

But that doesn’t mean we’ve won the battle for the freedom to read.

PEN America has still documented nearly 7,000 book bans this year. And worse, extremist groups like Moms for Liberty have turned to under-the-radar methods to stop kids from reading.

This week is Banned Books Week, and we’re kicking off our celebration tomorrow night by talking to PEN America and authors whose books have been taken off the shelves! We’ll explore the current state of book banning, the new playbook of censorship, and the real impact on writers and readers alike. Most importantly, we’ll learn how to join the fight against book bans and protect the freedom to read.

Join us tomorrow night at 7:00PM ET for The Current State of Book Bans and How to Fight Back.

The trend of book bans received a big boost this year from the Trump administration, whose executive orders including “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism,” and “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” were used as justification for bans in Department of Defense schools and school districts nationwide.²

Districts are fearing government retaliation for allowing certain books in the schools to the point where they are preemptively removing books before they have the chance to be challenged.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about these and other kinds of “shadow bans,” who is being banned (Stephen King topped the list this year), and how banning books harms our kids’ education. And we’ll talk about how we can fight back!

Let’s come together for the right to read! RSVP for our Banned Books Week event now.

See you there!