(New York) The American Authors Guild is launching a banned books club, the literary world’s latest initiative in response to a nationwide wave of censorship and restrictions in the past year.
Posted at 2:06 p.m.
Through a partnership with book club app Fable, the Authors Guild will highlight a work of fiction or non-fiction banned from a classroom or school library each month next year. and will facilitate a discussion with the author. The first selection for the online club is the young adult novel by David Levithan Two Boys Kissing.
“Our goal is to give students and adults the chance to read and learn more about banned books in their districts and elsewhere and provide the rare opportunity to engage on the platform with the authors of these works,” said Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, Thursday, in a statement.
David Levithan, an award-winning author who also runs a young adult brand at Scholastic, said in a statement that the new club would be “a great forum to discuss not only why these books are being challenged, but also how to support children who are deprived by such obstacles”.
The Guild, founded in 1912, is made up of more than 10,000 published authors.
Over the past few weeks, the New York Public Library has returned speak (tell you about it) by Laurie Halse Anderson and a handful of other challenged works available to everyone through its app, and the Brooklyn Public Library has launched Books UnBanned, an initiative through which young people across the country between the ages of 13 and 21 can receive a free library card.
We Need Diverse Books, an organization that advocates for greater inclusion in publishing, distributes grants of $2,000 each to teachers and libraries, which can be used for author visits, the purchase of various books, and other efforts to fight censorship.