Have Ideas for Next Year’s Banned Books Week Theme? We Want to Hear From You

With Banned Books Week 2020 wrapped up, the Banned Books Week Coalition is now planning next year’s event. Booksellers are encouraged to make their voices heard by submitting their ideas for next year’s theme by Tuesday, December 1. The short survey, found here, will take less than five minutes to complete.

Banned Books Week launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores, and libraries. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community in shared support of the freedom to read. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship, especially when aimed at silencing Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); LGBTQIA+ folks; and other historically oppressed voices.

The Banned Books Week Coalition includes American Booksellers Association; American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of University Presses; Authors Guild; Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE); Freedom to Read Foundation; Index on Censorship; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; PEN America; People For the American Way Foundation; and Project Censored. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Banned Books Week also receives generous support from DKT Liberty Project and Penguin Random House.