Book bans and challenges have spiked dramatically this year, according to two new reports from the American Library Association and PEN America.
The two organizations both released new studies to coincide with Banned Books Week, the annual event sponsored by a number of groups including the ALA and PEN.
The ALA report, published Friday, found that in the first eight months of 2022, there were 681 attempts to ban or restrict books in American libraries. Those attempts targeted 1,651 different books.
The attempted bans represent a sharp escalation in the growing movement to censor books in libraries. In all of 2021, according to the ALA, there were 729 ban attempts, representing 1,597 books.
“The unprecedented number of challenges we’re seeing already this year reflects coordinated, national efforts to silence marginalized or historically underrepresented voices and deprive all of us—young people, in particular—of the chance to explore a world beyond the confines of personal experience,” Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada, the president of the ALA, said.
PEN America’s report found that many of the books banned or challenged in 2022 had themes in common—41% of the targeted books feature LGBTQ+ characters or themes, and 40% had characters who are people of color. The state with the most book bans or challenges was Texas, followed by Florida.
PEN CEO Suzanne Nossel said that “today’s wave of bans represents a coordinated campaign to banish books being waged by sophisticated, ideological and well-resourced advocacy organizations.”
“This censorious movement is turning our public schools into political battlegrounds, driving wedges within communities, forcing teachers and librarians from their jobs, and casting a chill over the spirit of open inquiry and intellectual freedom that underpin a flourishing democracy,” Nossel said.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
