Philomena Polefrone Wins Harvard’s Carr-Ryan Fellowship

Philomena Polefrone, associate director of the American Booksellers for Free Expression initiative of the American Booksellers Association, has been named to the inaugural cohort of Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Fellows at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights. 

Per an announcement, the fellowship “will allow Polefrone to pursue research revealing the role of independent bookstores as the vanguard and final line of defense for the right to read in the United States” as part of her ongoing work with the ABA. It will support the creation of “series of articles on the history of booksellers creating enduring legal precedent, organizing against book bans, and fostering literary community in times when literature is under attack.”

“Every day I am honored to represent independent booksellers in the struggle to defend the fundamental right to transmit and receive information,” said Polefrone in a statement. “This recognition by Havard’s Carr-Ryan Center really belongs to generations of indie booksellers who have tenaciously fought government censors, predatory national franchises, global mega-corporations, and rogue pressure groups to create vibrant literary communities. I am so excited to continue telling their story with the Carr-Ryan Center.”