Category: Authors
Woody Allen’s Book Cancellation is Apropos of Today’s Discourse
The ability to stymy humiliation, to withhold judgement about intellectual pursuits is a pillar of intellectual freedom. Hachette’s recent move to cancel Woody Allen’s memoir represents an irreparable crack in this pillar as it buckles to sentiments anathema to an adult’s right to read.
Happy Birthday, Ellen Hopkins!
Ellen Hopkins is a frequently challenged author of young adult books. March 26th is her birthday and we would like to celebrate with this blog post! Ellen’s work has helped shatter societal stigma against people with substance abuse disorder, among other mental health issues.
Green-Dots Mean Go, Part Two: An Interview with Kate Klise, Author of Don’t Check Out This Book!
By: guest contributor Brian E. Wilson, ALSC Liaison for the ALA Committee on Professional Ethics. Acclaimed children’s author Kate Klise talks about how Cathy Evans’ “green dot collection” inspired her and her sister M. Sarah Klise to create the hilarious and inventive new novel, Don’t Check Out This Book!.
Happy Birthday, Dav Pilkey!
Dav Pilkey, the extremely successful yet often banned or challenged author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants (1997) and Dog Man series (2016), advocate for children’s right to read and create, celebrates his 54th birthday on March 4, 2020.
A Birthday Letter to Jacqueline Woodson
Dear Jacqueline Woodson, I’m so happy to celebrate your birthday with you today, and so are my two kids, my students, and my colleagues in the worlds of children’s, young adult, and adult literature! Thank you for your books, your voice, and all the ways that you elevate the experiences of youth, particularly youth of color.
Happy birthday, Virginia Woolf
Woolf had a keen sense of the need for equitable access, access to both a physical space for thinking and to intellectual nourishment, in order for women to be empowered to create.
Getting to the Truth in a Post-Truth Society: An Interview with Lee McIntyre, Author of Post-Truth
According to Lee McIntyre, Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History, Boston University, we are now living in a post-truth society. McIntyre believes that post-truth is an attempt to compel someone to believe in something whether evidence exists for it or not. One memorable example: Donald Trump claiming his inauguration crowd was larger than Obama’s crowd even though photographic evidence indicated otherwise.
Happy Birthday, Robert Cormier!
Despite being frequently challenged, Cormier continued to write these mature themes; he felt they were an important window for young adults to view the world beyond them.
Author Robin Stevenson Returns to Speak in Community Where She Was Uninvited for LGBTQ+ Content
By: guest contributor Julia A. Nephew. “To me this has been a reminder of how invisible LGBTQ people in history still are in many school curriculum,” author Robin Stevenson said of District 200 canceling her Oct. 2 talk. “And it does make me feel like it’s important that all kids are aware of the really significant contributions of LGBTQ people throughout history, and it’s important that LGBTQ kids and teens in particular see their own lives and identities reflected in the books they read.”
Happy birthday, Marjane Satrapi
Culture and education are the lethal weapons against all kinds of fundamentalism.