Books are being banned. First amendment rights are under threat. These are not normal times, as Jessica Kingsley publisher David Corey says. PW talked with Corey about JKP's new campaign, Reading Is Resistance, why he and his colleagues felt the need to launch the campaign, and what they hope it can accomplish.
What inspired you to launch the Reading Is Resistance campaign?
Like many people, I’ve been alarmed by the rising boldness of efforts to limit access to reading resources for the people who need those resources most. After the election, that alarm turned to righteous anger as efforts to shame, belittle, and scare our most vulnerable citizens became ever more widespread. Reading Is Resistance is about reminding readers, and ourselves, that books are at their core artifacts of our free speech, personal liberty, and human connection. And we protect those liberties by engaging in and experiencing them. They want us to be quiet and read less. We say shout and read more in response.
How does the long-standing mission of Jessica Kingsley Publishers line up with Reading Is Resistance?
At its core, JKP is a mission-driven press. We publish books that focus on mental health, wellness, trauma, attachment, and grief. We publish for LGBTIA+ communities, autistic and neurodiverse communities, black and brown communities, immigrant communities, and more. And our publishing has always been about lifting those communities up.
How are you planning to reach and mobilize readers, librarians, and other invested members of the community?
Reading Is Resistance started as a simple hashtag campaign. We reached out to a number of micro-influencers in the queer book world who opted in, along with JKP authors and library influencers. We Need Diverse Books is our nonprofit partner in this campaign—we’ll be donating 25% of our profits from T-shirt sales to the organization—and the combined reach of our own socials, the socials of WNDB, and the influencer socials amounts to more than one million potential social media impressions. In addition, we’re reaching out to our in-house mailing list, running ads with wholesalers, and mailing catalogs to bookstores.
Can you share any current or upcoming titles that will be featured in the Reading Is Resistance campaign?
The message of Reading Is Resistance stands on its own. And we hope it is used widely. But we have produced a catalog to go with the campaign that includes such new titles as Hands On: Stories of Sexuality Work, Intimacy, and Healing; The Go-To Relationship Guide for Gay Men; Expansive Love: A Practical Guide to Relationship Anarchy; Notes From a Queer Cripple; and the children’s books Porn Is Not Sex Ed!, Just Like Queen Esther, and My History, My Gender, Me.
What do you feel is the impetus behind the rise of efforts to challenge and ban books? For those inclined to ban books, what might be the antidote to the impulse?
Fear can be a destroyer of civic mental health. A global pandemic combined with a media landscape that is rewarded by scaring readers and viewers have both certainly eroded public trust in institutions and people of differing political views to levels never experienced in the U.S. This environment has supercharged those who look upon information as potentially dangerous for the public.
What is your message to librarians who might fear for the future of their institutions?
While there are real and increasing threats to public library and school resource funding at the local, state, and national level, librarians are fighting back with their innate sense of mission. Whether it is helping a young child struggling with questions about their own identity or recommending a self-help book for a trans person looking to learn about the process of transition, it is the librarian who matches each with a book. They’re the frontline warriors in this fight. If you took away every library, librarians would simply go door-to-door to continue their missionary work.
We're living in challenging times. What keeps you going as we all navigate attacks on free speech?
Gin. But seriously, the answer is people. Fear got us into this. Exorcising those fears will lead us back. My family keeps me going. My friends and coworkers. My kids. And strangers the most. A positive interaction with a stranger always makes my day. Also, gin. Did I say gin?
Beyond practicing their own first amendment rights by reading, are there other ways that readers can help support the campaign and push back against censorship?
There are organizations and individuals already doing so much more than what we can achieve in this one campaign, so giving donations and amplifying their visibility are vital. The Freedom to Read Foundation is the gold standard for the legal and political defense of first amendment rights around access to reading. And the American Booksellers for Free Expression publishes the excellent book The ABA Right to Read Handbook: Fighting Book Bans and Why It Matters for those who want to go deeper in this fight.
