and more.
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Publisher NewsBooks on Trial: 8 Freedom to Read Cases to Watch
These legal cases may determine which titles are available in public schools and libraries for years to come.
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Publisher News
Book Banners Are Everywhere. These Lawyers Are Playing Offense.
Restrictions to reading materials are taking a toll on communities nationwide. These lawyers are helping librarians, teachers, and others fight back.
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Publisher News
How Grassroots Activists Are Fighting for the Right to Read
These 10 advocates uphold the freedom to read on their local turf.
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Publisher News
The 2025 Freedom to Read Issue
For our second Freedom to Read Issue, we’re highlighting the work being done in communities across the country, from the Diet Coke–drinking mom who cofounded the Texas Freedom to Read Project to the members of Penguin Random House’s Intellectual Freedom Taskforce.
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Publisher News
Librarians Without Borders: PW Talks with Kim A. Snyder
The Librarians, Snyder’s documentary on combating book bans that is already a Sundance festival hit, will tour libraries, campuses, and cinemas across the U.S. and around the globe this fall.
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Publisher News
What Happened After ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ by George M. Johnson Got Banned
An inside look at the fight to keep the author’s bestselling memoir-manifesto on the shelves.
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Libraries
SCOTUS Mandates Opt-Outs on LGBTQ+ Books in Schools, Funding for E-Rate Program
Wrapping up a hurly-burly session, the U.S. Supreme Court today announced two decisions that will allow all parents to opt their children out of being taught books with LGBTQ+ themes in schools and ensure funding for universal broadband access for schools, libraries, and under-resourced areas.
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Libraries
Appeals Court Reverses Ruling in Texas Book Ban Case
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on May 23 reversed a district court’s preliminary injunction and dismissed free speech claims in Little v. Llano County, a Texas case challenging the removal of 17 books from a public library.
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Awards & Prizes
Macmillan CEO Jon Yaged: Censorship ‘Puts Us On a Path to Mediocrity’
At this year’s PEN America Literary Gala, Macmillan Publishers CEO Jon Yaged, the recipient of PEN’s annual Business Visionary Award, took aim at the efforts to censor free expression that have increasingly defined American culture over the past several years.
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People
Right Now Is Publishing’s Time to Shine
The publishing industry is stacked with talent, writes PW editorial director Jonathan Segura. And with all the chaos coming out of Washington, this is the time, he writes, for publishers to make the most of that talent and do their best work.
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Libraries
PRH and Co-Plaintiffs Push Back on Florida Book Banning Law
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in Penguin Random House LLC v. Gibson argued that their clients “have suffered First Amendment injury” due to book removals in classrooms and libraries facilitated by Florida House Bill 1069, which was signed into law in May 2023.
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Awards & Prizes
Federal Judge Won’t Block NEA from Imposing Speech Restraints on Grantees
The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island has denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin the National Endowment for the Arts from prohibiting grant recipients from using grant funding to promote “gender ideology.”
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Libraries
ALA Releases Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024
In its annual State of America's Libraries report, the American Library Association found that George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue was the most challenged book of last year, among other titles largely by and about LGBTQ+ persons and people of color.
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Shows & Events
Publishers, Nonprofits Raise Funds to Back Freedom to Read, Free Speech
As challenges to free expression show no signs of abating, Penguin Random House and the National Coalition Against Censorship have announced separate fundraising initiatives to counter the threat.
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Publisher News
Cultural Organizations Protest Trump Efforts to Confine Speech for Federal Grantees
Seven arts, culture, and free expression organizations have issued a statement asserting that recent Trump Administration executive actions are aimed at turning federally funded programs into “the mouthpiece of the presidential administration.”
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Industry News
PEN America Report Zooms In on School Year 2023–2024 Book Bans
In a new report, the free expression nonprofit highlights 4,128 unique titles that it has determined were removed from public schools nationwide during the 2023–2024 academic year—a result of more than 10,000 instances of school book bans over that time.
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Publisher News
Publishers, Authors Guild Sue State of Idaho Over Book Banning Law
The plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction against against HB 710, which forbids anyone under 18 from accessing library books that contain “sexual content,” regardless of the work's literary or educational merit.
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Publisher News
Dystopian Novels See Post-Inauguration Sales Boost
Sales of 'Fahrenheit 451,' '1984,' 'Animal Farm,' 'The Handmaid's Tale,' and 'Parable of the Sower' all posted large sales gains following President Donald Trump's return to the White House. Two titles by Trump allies also saw sales rise.
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Libraries
Industry Orgs Decry New DOE Guidance Dismissing 'Book Ban Hoax'
The Department of Education has reversed course in its efforts to stem the tide of what it now describes as "so-called" school book bans, eliminating the role of book ban coordinator at the Office of Civil Rights and dismissing 11 outstanding complaints filed with the DOE.
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Industry News
Minneapolis Concert Raises Funds for Organizations Battling Book Bans
Lerner Publishing Group hosted an evening of music at an iconic venue in downtown Minneapolis to raise awareness of the impact of book bans and funds for three organizations battling bans and censorship.
