Thinking about Bans from the Left; More Trump Admin. Censorship
Shenanigans in the states: AL, IA, NJ, OK, UT; Library ‘Law & Order’ reel
Hello Friends,
This week felt a bit better on my end and I’m hoping things are lifting for you as well. In Southern California, we got some much needed rain (and snow in our mountains) over several days. Since we don’t have much of a winter compared to other states, it was nice to wrap up in throw blankets and be cozy. Plus—Olympics!
Before we get to the library and book censorship news, I thought it’d be fun to highlight an essay by Lydia Millet, which is both funny and serious by turns. Millet laments that none of her books have ever been banned, even though she is so edgy. (My hint to her: write YA fiction and be banned immediately!) She moves on to punch at the mediocrity of literary awards, and then hits pretty hard—deservedly so, I think—at book bans by the left, which often show up as pre-publication cancellations when liberals feel that authors have veered from their lane. Well worth a read!
What Happens When Your Books (Don’t) Get Banned? From LitHub
LYDIA MILLET ON CENSORSHIP, CREATIVITY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTINUING THE LITERARY CONVERSATION
Anyone has the “right” to imagine and write anything; anyone has the right to either read it or not read it, enjoy it or not enjoy it, deem it an artistic failure or success; and which categories of others can be imagined by an author should be neither prescribed nor prohibited.
The notion that content should align with an author’s demographic identity is as chilling and stultifying as any other muzzling. Without the freedom to embark on ambitious experiments in negative capability there would be no Moby Dicks or Anna Kareninas—no brilliant or meaningful fiction and in the end, really, no fiction. For fiction that fails to challenge preexisting views and assumptions is nothing more than idle chatter—small talk. And small talk may help to pass the time but doesn’t invest that time with learning or vibrance or novelty.
The social enterprise of the left is rightly the expansion of enfranchisement and equity, and as I write, that agenda is profoundly embattled, both in the United States and in other countries. Yet the solution is not to shame or pillory those artists who dare to drive outside their assigned lanes. Whatever we call them, and whether they arise from the right or left, campaigns to quash speech are timewasting, truth-wasting exercises in the denial of social reality.
The United States
A couple of good things before the rest of the craziness …
El Paso Holocaust Museum to open exhibit on book censorship from Yahoo News
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The El Paso Holocaust Museum will open its newest exhibition, Stories We Need in Time of Censorship, this weekend, according to the museum in a news release. …
“At El Paso Holocaust Museum, our mission is to teach the history of the Holocaust in order to combat prejudice and intolerance, so we are deeply concerned about the increase in book bans and challenges. Through reading, we build understanding, connection, and empathy by learning to see the world through another’s perspective and that is what Stories We Need in a Time of Censorship will help the community accomplish,” the executive director at EPHM, Jamie Flores, said.
Library of Congress to Unveil an Interactive Youth Center from Publishers Weekly
This spring, the Library of Congress will open The Source: Where Creativity Sparks Discovery, a 4,000-square-foot experiential learning space for young people ages 8–15. Shari Rosenstein Werb, director of the LoC’s Center for Learning, Literacy, and Engagement and The Source’s lead curator, said that the LoC exhibits team is putting the finishing touches on the space, housed in the Thomas Jefferson Building.
The Source’s full website will launch on April 2, and the gallery will open to the public with a big family day event on May 9, Werb said.
“The LoC is a research library, and you have to be 16 to get a research card,” Werb told PW. “We want to encourage young people to do research, so we’ve collected maps, audio, all sorts of things from the library that invite kids to explore the collections.” Throughout the development process, she and her co-planners held a quarterly consultation with a youth advisory council of tweens and teens from across the nation. “They’d give us feedback, and we incorporated all of it into the development and design,” she said.
Displays and facsimile materials will spotlight the various media—images, film, sound, and text—in the LoC’s vast collection, and The Source promises interactive experiences, including “researcher boxes that enable kids to follow the path of someone who’s done research,” Werb said. One box will be based on documents from 1970s New York, compiled as project research by Meg Medina, the 2023–2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
“We’ll have four zones that invite kids to open drawers, dig deeper into film archives or sound archives, and develop media literacy and research skills,” Werb added, noting that the exhibits team worked with design firm Skolnick Architecture on the build. “There’s a ‘meet a librarian’ section with life-size videos of six librarians representing different specialties, so you’re kind of coming face-to-face with a librarian in a fun way.”
A New Series from NPR Dives into Banned Books
The truth and lies behind one of the most banned books in America | Code Switch from NPR
Author Mike Curato wrote Flamer as a way to help young queer kids, like he once was, better understand and accept themselves. It was met with immediate praise and accolades — until it wasn’t.
When the book got caught up in a wave of Texas-based book bans, suddenly the narrative changed. And like so many books that address queer identity, Flamer quickly became a flashpoint in a long, messy culture war that tried to distort the nature of the book.
The following makes me especially sad as we used the CIA Factbook a lot with social studies classes doing research in the library.
CIA terminates its World Factbook, overthrowing reference regime from CNN
After decades of serving as a reliable, authoritative public repository of basic information about countries, their economies, and their people, The World Factbook disappeared from the internet on February 4 with no advance notice. Teachers, students, librarians, researchers, and curious citizens in general were abruptly cut off from a reference they had taken for granted.
“The CIA Factbook is not bulletproof perfect, but it’s way better than a lot of other sources out there and it’s free,” Hale, a social studies teacher in Oklahoma City, said. “It was always there, and now it’s not.” …
It also follows the loss of other US government information, once considered relatively reliable and trustworthy. Since President Donald Trump came into office again, he has directed US government health websites to be taken down or modified, imposed his views on what should and shouldn’t be displayed at the Smithsonian Institution and ordered the National Parks Service to remove references to slavery, among other directives. …
“It’s so hard to use corporate or private company resources, whether they’re talking about international data or banking or currency exchanges or whatever, because they have a vested interest to lie,” Hale said. “I can go debunk stuff, I can go redact stuff, but I don’t want the kids exposed to the lie in the first place.”
Grant Guidelines for Libraries and Museums Take “Chilling” Political Turn Under Trump from ProPublica
Former Institute of Museum and Library Services leaders from both political parties expressed concern that the new funding guidelines could encourage a more constrained or distorted view of American history.
In cover letters accompanying the applications, the institute said it “particularly welcomes” projects that align with President Donald Trump’s vision for America.
These would include those that foster an appreciation for the country “through uplifting and positive narratives,” the agency writes, citing an executive order that attacks the Smithsonian Institution for its “divisive, race-centered ideology.” (Trump has said the museum focused too much on “how bad slavery was.”) The agency also points to an executive order calling for the end of “the anti-Christian weaponization of government” and one titled Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again.
The solicitation marks a stark departure for the agency, whose guidelines were previously apolitical and focused on merit.
Book Bans Still Happen Loudly in States with Anti-Book Ban Laws from Kelly Jensen’s Well-Sourced Newsletter
If book banning is being crafted to circumvent Freedom to Read bills, it’s beyond time to call this a public health crisis.
As these anti-book ban bills have rolled out nationwide, so, too, have the tactics to undermine them. In early 2025, Minnesota and Maryland lawmakers attempted to skirt their state bills by introducing legislation that would make it illegal for public schools to have books that contain “sexually explicit” or “sexually inappropriate” materials. The vagueness of the language is purposeful, since neither of those is a federally-regulated term in the way that “obscenity” is. We know such language is intended to permit banning of LGBTQ+ books, even if such books are exactly part of what’s being protected by these laws. …
In New Jersey, though, we’ve now seen two different underhanded means by which book banners are removing titles in just a month.
[The article goes on to discuss New Jersey in depth.]
The States
Alabama
Alabama Senate approves bill allowing firings of library board members From the Alabama Reflector
The legislation comes amid ongoing attacks by right-wing activists on library content, particularly books with LGBTQ+ themes.
Currently, city councils and county commissioners cannot remove members of library boards at will.
The bill comes as conservatives and right-wing organizations in Alabama continue to target library books, particularly those with LGBTQ+ themes. The Alabama Public Library Service Board last year approved a ban on books with “gender ideology,” a broad term it does not define. In January, the board voted to withhold state funds from the Fairhope Public Library over the placement of books like “The Handmaid’s Tale” in a teen section.
Elliott first introduced the bill in 2024, where it got out of a House committee but did not come to a vote. A similar bill filed last year passed the Senate but did not come to a House vote.
… The bill does not require a governing authority to have a reason to remove a member of a local library board, which sparked Democrats’ arguments.
“I want to make sure that we are not just taking people off of a board because they don’t agree with our thinking and our beliefs or whatever,” Figures said. “Or that they’re going to be taken off of a board for vindictive reasoning or without cause just because somebody wakes up and feels like they want to take them off.”
For another look at this:
‘Common courtesy:’ Alabama library battles continue as lawmakers debate who can oust board members from AL.com (thanks to Jan Harayda )
Iowa
Senate panel advances bill tightening obscenity laws for schools, libraries from SW Iowa News
A Senate subcommittee passed a measure Monday to remove existing exemptions from state obscenity laws for public libraries and schools.
“Obscene” materials — defined as materials containing depictions of sexual acts and material involving nudity or sadomasochistic abuse of minors that lacks “literary, artistic, political or scientific value” when considered as a whole — are already not allowed in public libraries or schools under federal law, according to librarians and some advocates.”
However, in Iowa Code, there is a state-level exemption in obscenity laws related to criminal charges and civil lawsuits for the distribution or display of obscene material to minors. The provision states Iowa’s laws do not prohibit the “use of appropriate material for educational purposes” in accredited schools, educational programs or libraries, nor does the law ban “the attendance of minors at an exhibition or display of art works or the use of any materials in any public library.”
Senate File 2119 would repeal this provision. Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, said as librarians and others stated, obscene materials are not currently on library and school shelves, so there should be no issue with removing this language from Iowa law. …
But speakers opposed to the measure said this language was not in code to allow libraries and schools to have obscene materials, but so these public institutions would not be at risk of numerous, expensive lawsuits.
New Jersey
Readington Approves Contentious Policy Regarding Freedom to Read Act and Book Choices in School Libraries
READINGTON, NJ – The Readington board of education has voted to adopt Policy 2525 and Regulation 2535 after an Elizabeth Fiore-led motion to send the contentious policy and regulation back to the policy committee for changes failed to find enough votes at the board’s meeting Feb. 10. …
“The New Jersey Freedom to Read law was enacted to protect students access to diverse education and age-appropriate materials, and to affirm the professional authority of licensed school library,” said Scott Cohen, a prominent Hunterdon County community leader and educator. “This law is intended to prevent censorship and ensure challenges to materials follow clear, transparent and lawful processes.”
According to Cohen, the goal of the policy and Regulation 2535 is to circumvent the Freedom to Read Act by micromanaging the library selection process and pre-banning books before they are published or purchased.
Oklahoma
Bill banning some content from school libraries passes first committee hurdle from the Oklahoman
HB 2978 bans books with ‘sexually explicit conduct’ in school libraries
The committee also approved a bill prohibiting schools from having books with “sexually explicit conduct” in their libraries. Current state law requires school library books to reflect the community standards for the population the library serves.
Utah
This Stephen King novel is now the 23rd book banned from all Utah public schools from Salt Lake Tribune
“Bag of Bones” was added this month to the growing list of prohibited titles.
King’s 1998 horror novel “Bag of Bones” was added Friday to the growing list of now-23 titles prohibited in public schools.
The book follows Mike Noonan, a widowed author suffering from writer’s block. After a series of nightmares about his lake house, he decides to visit it in an attempt to write again. But he soon becomes embroiled in a legal battle with a local woman and her influential father-in-law. …
[A] report from literary and human rights organization PEN America named King the No. 1 banned author in U.S. schools for the 2024-25 school year.
King shared his thoughts about it on social media platform X in September:
“I am now the most banned author in the United States — 87 books,” King wrote. “May I suggest you pick up one of them and see what all the pissing & moaning is about?”
Utah residents host ‘read-in’ to protest book ban legislation from ABC News
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — On Friday, dozens of individuals attended a demonstration at the Utah State Capitol to protest a bill that would limit “sensitive” teaching materials.
House Bill 197 prohibits Local Education Agencies (LEA) from providing materials to students that have been removed statewide and requires them to review all instructional material before making it available for student use in order to avoid “sensitive material”.
The House Education Committee heard the bill today and favorably recommended it, advancing it to the house chamber. You can read HB 197 and see its current status here.
On Friday, Let Utah Read organized a read-in, in which demonstrators had a community reading hour with authors and speakers. One of the authors, Abdi Nazemian, had his novel banned statewide in Utah in 2025.
Facing another year of ‘sensitive material’ bills, some Republicans are getting fatigued from Utah News Dispatch
Schools have scrambled to keep up with laws to restrict books year by year, advocates and lawmakers say
For Jessica Horton, co-founder of Let Davis Read, a group of parents and residents advocating against book bans in the Davis School District, every book removed from library shelves is a stark reminder of the moving target the sensitive materials law has been across the state.
The state, for example, conducted an audit of schools’ compliance with the law before they had a chance to implement the changes the Legislature approved in 2025.
“They’re moving so fast that schools can’t even keep up,” she said. “And especially it affects rural schools who may not necessarily have the funding or the ability to keep up with some of the regulations that come from the legislature every year.”
Horton spoke from the ACLU’s Let Utah Read event, which, like the sensitive materials bills, has transformed into an annual tradition for the last four years.
“Every time that sensitive materials bill comes up, I get frustrated because I don’t think we need any more legislation on this issue, especially since there’s an active lawsuit with the ACLU,” Horton said. “Honestly, I think they need to just put a pause on it while everybody has a chance to breathe and catch up and while this lawsuit works its way through the courts.”
Thanks for doing the work for us. And thanks for including the Lydia Millet essay. Because of subject matter, I fear that my book will be rejected by some of my political cohort.
I enjoyed the Lydia Millet essay. I'm curious, did your book get banned yet?