Across the United States, agencies have issued an ever-evolving list of restrictions on what people in prison can read. Works by Black authors, civil rights literature, critiques of mass incarceration, books in languages other than English—all are frequently censored. (Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and books by David Duke have been allowed in some of those same prisons.) Read more
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Markus Dohle, the chief executive of Penguin Random House, said the effort “ties into the future of our democracy.” Read more
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A school board in Tennessee voted unanimously this month to ban “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, from being taught in its classrooms because the book contains material that board members said was inappropriate for students. Read more
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This year’s Banned Books Week, which began Sunday, has the traditional list. But it also has a new feature: an honorary chairman. Jason Reynolds is a fitting pick for the job. He is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature through next year, and he has two books on this year’s list. Read more
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Last October, the Central York school board unanimously banned a list of resources written by authors of color and featuring main characters of color. The banned resources range from I Am Not Your Negro, an Oscar-nominated PBS documentary about James Baldwin; to a statement on racism from the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators; to a children’s coloring book featuring African Adrinkra symbols; to an African-themed cookbook. Read more
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Original scroll of The 120 Days of Sodom, written while the writer was jailed in the Bastille, has been bought as an ‘emblem of artistic freedom’ Read more
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After a year dominated by protests against police killings of Black Americans, the books on the list of the most frequently challenged titles of 2020 reflected the movement — and the backlash to it. Read more
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