Want to Fight Book Bans? Start Here.

It’s Banned Books Week, which means book banning and censorship are getting more coverage than usual. Kelly Jensen is out this week, but she spends the entire year reporting on censorship news in the Literary Activism newsletter. If Banned Books Week has inspired you to join (or rejoin) the fight for freedom to read, here’s the best way to get started. Kelly wrote this list of “60+ Small Tasks to Defend the Right to Read” at the start of the year, but now is a great time to get started. “What can I do to learn about book censorship and help put a stop to it?” This question and variations thereof continue to be the most common ones I come across. The answer is not just to buy the books. That is an act of consumerism, and while it has value, meaning, and purpose — especially for living authors whose works and lives are under attack — it is not a step toward ending book bans. It is a myth that book bans increase book sales and “help” an author whose work has been targeted. It is also a myth that book bans encourage young people to obtain the banned title. The reality is that what’s at stake are our public institutions of democracy: public libraries and public schools. Also at stake ar...