Freedom to Read Digital Issue of PW and Reminder of EveryLibrary's Banned Books Week Live: AKA the Correct Ways to Approach Banned Books Week in 2024

Banned Books Week begins Sunday and I wanted to make sure I reposted the EveryLibrary event happening all next week for which I am a moderator. Here and below

Also, Publisher's Weekly has released this special "Freedom to Read" issue that they are making widely available for free and includes articles from the library perspective. 

Please read and make available for your patrons. I stress the read part though. Read this for yourself. Banned Books Week has changed from how many of you are used to promoting it.

The threat is not existential.

The threat is not to "classic" books. 

The threat is to the very existence of our libraries as an institution.

The threat is to marginalized people whose entire existence is being erased.

No, I am not exaggerating. Click through and read the piece by Amanda Jones and the article focused on Kelly Jensen. Start there but read it all. All of the articles are focused on the current fight and the cost to those who have resisted.

Read this issue of PW and then my post below. All of this will lead you to the active and productive ways you can participate in the conversation about the Freedom to Read during Banned Book week.

Banned Books week is coming up on September 22 and EveryLibrary is doing a full week of author and publishing and library professional interviews. They have recruited me to help and I will be doing 3 authors interview panels.

You can go here to signup for free. From the landing page with and easy sign-up box and the schedule as its stands now:

Join us for over 25 panels with 45+ authors, publishing professionals, and experts on book bans and the First Amendment for "EveryLibrary Live! Banned Books Week 2024", September 22 - 27 online. This will be an extraordinary week of conversations about the joy of writing, the culture of reading, the challenges of censorship in schools and libraries, and the celebration of the freedom to read. Plan now to be a part of this new literary festival where everyone is encouraged to read freely. 

We have an exciting lineup of author conversations, panels, and learning events that you can attend online and at your convenience. We will be hosting live broadcasts every day during Banned Books Week 2024 on our Facebook Live or YouTube Live channels. Be a part of each event as it happens, or access the "instant archive" for on-demand viewing. Meet your favorite authors and take the time to learn, listen, and enjoy new ones. 

We start our festival of reading on Sunday, September 22 at 12n EDT and run through Friday, September 27 at 8pm EDT. All events are free to attend. Meet and listen to authors like Julia Quinn, Jason Reynolds, Malinda Lo, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Stephen Chbosky, Maia Kobabe, and Paula Poundstone as they share about writing and how libraries matter in their lives. Join the conversation about fighting censorship and supporting the First Amendment with noted experts and organizers like Dr. Emily Knox and Patrick "PC" Sweeney.

This reading festival is free and open to the public.

EveryLibrary Live! Banned Books Week 2024 is supported by the participation of great publishers like Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Rowman & Littlefield, Kensignton, Candlewick, and Seven Stories Press. Our partner organizations, Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and the We Are Stronger Than Censorship initiative, are powerful advocates for reading. Join your hosts Gigi Howard from the hit podcast Drinks in the Library, Lee Wind from IBPA, Becky Spratford from RA for All, author and ambassador Rex Ogle, and John Chrastka from EveryLibrary for dozens of engaging author conversations.

RSVP now to get the full festival schedule emailed to you, along with reminders every morning. New sessions are still being announced. Sign up now so you won't miss a thing!

While I think this event will be of interest to you, my readers, I also want to remind you that you can (and should) make this FREE event part of your library's Banned Books Week programming.

First, and most importantly, please notice that the authors here are all currently publishing. We are not talking about banning classics. These are books and authors whose work is challenged RIGHT NOW. These are people who are involved in the fight right to stop censorship today.

Please model this behavior during your Banned Books Week programming and promotion. This is not about the outrage of classic titles being banned. We are in a moment when contemporary stories where people who write authentically as a person of color or from their LGBTQIA+ perspective are facing challenges that are demanding that their existence be silenced. Yes it is that serious. Sure it sucks that people ban Huck Finn, but you should be outraged that simply having a queer character means there are loud voices calling it pornography. Showcase the books from the last 10 years that are actively being removed from libraries. Books that have won major awards. 

Second, you can set up a room in your library to show these interviews live throughout the week as well as passing it on to your patrons for them to watch on their own. This can be your Banned Books Week in person event. EveryLibrary is helping you by doing the work to organize it, but they are doing it to help all of you.

I was talking to EveryLibrary Executive Director John Chrastka about encouraging libraries to make watch parties for this weeklong, "accidental" book festival (his word in quotes). He agreed.

In fact, if you look at the schedule, they were thinking about just this as planning because there are live events starting as late as 8pm Pacific- meaning that all libraries, across the continental US have the chance to have evening programming all week long.

And yet, they are also all free and will be archived for use at anytime. So while this a Banned Books Week event, it can be an anytime of year event as well.

Please sign-up for yourself, advertise the event as YOUR Banned Books Week Programming. Make displays of the books by the authors scheduled to appear. They write in all age levels so that means you can do intergenerational displays as well, and I love these as I have made evident in these posts.