Free Expression

American Booksellers for Free Expression Director Chris Finan is leaving the American Booksellers Association to become the National Coalition Against Censorship’s new executive director.

This year’s Banned Books Week, September 24–30, will celebrate the importance of the freedom to read for all Americans with the theme “Our Right to Read.”

ABFE Director Chris Finan looks back at some of the many cases in which Michael Bamberger, general counsel of Media Coalition and the first recipient of the Joyce Meskis Free Speech Award, has defended the free speech rights of booksellers.

ABA has joined a campaign to urge Congress to continue federal support of America’s 120,000 public libraries. The campaign will be led by a new organization, the Corporate Committee for Library Investment.

ABA’s inaugural Joyce Meskis Free Speech Award will be presented to Michael A. Bamberger, the general counsel of Media Coalition, on May 31 during the Celebration of Bookselling at BookExpo.

The importance of defending freedom of speech will be discussed during BookExpo programs presented by American Booksellers for Free Expression and PEN America.

ABA education at BookExpo 2017 will feature sessions on hiring for diversity, selling controversial books, and migrating to Edelweiss+, as well as a session for authors interested in working with indies.

In his remarks at the April 25th PEN Literary Gala, PEN Publisher Honoree John Sargent spoke about the importance of defending free speech.

Audrey Eisman, the former coordinator of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, died on Sunday, April 23, following a long illness. She was 79.

Attendees at the annual PEN America dinner on Tuesday, April 25, will pause to honor Gui Minhai, the Hong Kong publisher and bookseller who is being held without charge on the Chinese mainland.

Books featuring LGBT characters occupied the first five positions on the American Library Association’s 2016 list of the books that were most frequently banned or challenged in schools or libraries.

A year ago, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, posted a sign in its front window announcing its welcoming attitude toward everyone who might walk through its doors.

Angela Gui, the daughter of Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai, has been fighting a lonely battle to force Chinese authorities to release her father, who was kidnapped from his holiday home in Thailand in October 2015.

ABA has joined more than 80 book, free expression, and press organizations in expressing alarm at efforts by President Trump and his administration to demonize, marginalize, and undermine the media.

Follett names COO; Children’s Book Week expands staff; PEN World Voices Festival to focus on gender and power; PEN America Literary Award winners and Nebula, Norton, and Bradbury nominees announced