The US Authors Guild has announced a partnership with a new grassroots organisation called Authors Against Book Bans (AABB) to mobilise authors and illustrators in the fight against the growing number of book bans and challenges across the US.
Founded by bestselling and award-winning children’s and young adult authors David Levithan, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Sarah MacLean, Alan Gratz, Ellen Oh, Samira Ahmed, and Christina Soontornvat, AABB now has more than 1,500 members in nearly all 50 states. The organization provides a framework for local organizing, coordinates national “ban alerts,” issues strategic calls to action, partners with other free speech groups, and supports educators, librarians, parents, students, and authors with talking points and other related needs.
AABB’s mission statement declares: “We stand united against the deeply unconstitutional movement to limit the freedom to read. We unequivocally support the availability of diverse voices on our library shelves, in our schools, and in our culture.”
The body aims to “create a network of authors to work in conjunction with a variety of national-level organizations, as well as grassroots freedom-to-read organizations on a state-by-state level, for an effective, coordinated response against book bans and other threats to the freedom to read.”
The Authors Guild says it condemns censoring, threatening, or blacklisting authors. It says in a statement: “We are aware of recent incidents in which presses have refused to publish articles and speaking engagements have been cancelled based on the writer’s religious or national identity or their views relating to Israel or Palestine, as well as attempts to “blacklist” authors. We abhor antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry and discrimination intended to chill writers’ freedom of expression.
“We remind all publishers, agents, readers, literary organizations, and writing communities that this type of censorship cannot ever be justified and that we cannot allow the current climate of fear and intolerance to be used to bully or silence writers. It is by writing and publishing, not by censorship, that we can best shine a light on injustice. Free expression is the soil from which democracy sprouts and thrives.”