Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Governments are Banning Books at Higher Rates
In perhaps unsurprising news to those who have been following book banning coverage, two advocacy groups released data showing that the rate of book banning by state and local governments has increased post-pandemic. Florida and Iowa have especially high book ban numbers, but the issue isn’t limited to those states. One miserable bit of context for a drop from the year before in the American Library Association’s report is that this dip may be in part attributed to a pressure campaign mounted against some librarians to sever ties to the organization–the data from their report is sourced from members and library professionals.
Honey & Wax Announces Women Book Collectors Award Winner
Honey & Wax Booksellers announced this year’s winners of an award they set up back in 2017 for “for American women book collectors, aged 30 years and younger.” Elena Wicker won this year’s prize for her collection of U.S. military dictionaries, which she began collecting in order to better understand the language of her military colleagues. Honorable mentions include Kirin Gupta for “Femmes Fatales: The Violence and Power of Women Against Empire” and Emily Chauvin for “Theory/Practice: A Meta-Aesthetics Collection.”
We’d Listen to James Earl Jones Read an Instruction Manual
But this is so much better. James Earl Jones passed away earlier this month, but he lives on in our hearts, in his prolific work, and in this Letters Live video of Jones reading Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to a few young fans encouraging them to practice the arts for self exploration and growth. The letter was written in 2006 to students at a New York high school. If ever you needed a fire lit under you to finally write that novel, try painting, pick up an instrument, whatever, here it is.
The Banned Wagon Hits the Road Again
The Banned Wagon is hitting the road for its second annual tour, making stops at nine American communities across the Midwest and the South. Find out if it’s rolling into a town near you!