Reflection on Five Years of Relentless Attacks on the Freedom to Read by Those at the Center of the Fight via Book Riot

As I have mentioned before on this blog, Kelly Jensen has been the only journalist in America covering the assault on our intellectual freedom that has been happening in our libraries (of all types). Full stop. She is not the only person engaged in this fight, but she is the only one chronicling it as a journalist.

Click here to read her censorship coverage for Book Riot.

Recently, she also launched a podcast called Liberating Lit which I wrote more about here. You can listen now wherever you get podcasts. 

But back to the journalism and coverage. Jensen has been doing this for 5 years. Recently, as part of her regular weekly censorship roundup on Book Riot, she released a special report entitled, "“We Need To Tell The Story”: Literary Advocates Nationwide Reflect On Five Years of Relentless Attacks on the Freedom to Read"

I encourage all of you to read this report. Whether you are a regular follower of Jensen's coverage or have barely paid attention (and every where in-between), please take some time to look at the chaotic and terrifying times we have all been living through. This report gives us all the chance to take a step back (even as we are still deep in it) and try to understand the last 5 years.

Great work by Jensen and her colleagues. From the introduction:

“We Need To Tell The Story”: Literary Advocates Nationwide Reflect On Five Years of Relentless Attacks on the Freedom to Read

Kelly Jensen Sep 18, 2026

There will be no weekly link roundup today–a double roundup will land next week. Instead, this week’s Literary Activism post is dedicated to a report pulled together by the collaborative efforts of Kelly Jensen (Book Riot), Tasslyn Magnusson, Sarah Lamdan (American Library Association), Stephana Ferrell (Florida Freedom to Read Project), and Arielle Haughee (Freedom to Read Project), as well as dozens of right to read champions nationwide. This report reflects on five years of escalating book censorship, including challenges, opportunities, and successes. It does not cover prison censorship during this period; that will be addressed in a future piece.

Please click here to read the full report. I am posting this on a Friday so you take some time to read it this weekend.