Censored Authors Speak: A round table discussion about book banning in America

Book Banning is on the Rise in America

Across the country, books are being banned from school and public libraries at an unprecedented rate.  What does this mean for America and how is this wave of censorship impacting authors and editors personally as well as professionally?

Join our broadcast to hear a conversation among authors and an editor of young adult materials who have had their books challenged and removed from library shelves.

About our Panelists

• Alex Gino: Alex has been writing stories since before they knew the alphabet, dictating stories to their parents. They have always considered themself a writer, but it wasn’t until 2014, with the sale of MELISSA that they had any idea that authoring books would be how they make their way in the world. They are grateful for the ability to spend their time and energy on something so close to their heart. Alex has been an activist and advocate for LGBTQIAP+ communities since 1997, when they became co-chair of what was then called the LGBA at the University of Pennsylvania. (It was renamed the QSA the year after they left.) They are proud to have served on the board of NOLOSE, a fat-positive, queer, feminist organization dedicated to supporting radical fat acceptance and culture. Alex would like to thank the Black women and other amazing BIPOC folk of NOLOSE who raised their consciousness about race and how racism permeates our culture. They are currently a member of We Need Diverse Books and PEN America. Alex is happily settled in the Hudson Valley, NY, with their two black mischievous but loving cats, Thunderbolt and Lightning. (And yes, they are very, very frightening … when they are awake.)
  
  
• Ashley Hope Pérez: Ashley Hope Pérez is the author of three novels: Out of Darkness (2015), The Knife and the Butterfly (2012), and What Can’t Wait (2011). Out of Darkness was described by The New York Times Book Review as a “layered tale of color lines, love and struggle in an East Texas oil town,” and was selected as a best book of the year by both Kirkus and School Library Journal. It received a 2016 Printz Honor for Literary Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, the 2016 Tomás Rivera Book Award, and the 2016 Américas Award. What Can’t Wait and The Knife and the Butterfly appear on YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults and Popular Paperbacks lists. Since 2021, Out of Darkness has been among books featuring BIPOC experiences targeted by bans and removals from school libraries.
   
  Ashley is also a former high school English teacher, holds a doctorate in comparative literature, and is an assistant professor of world literatures at The Ohio State University. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her two sons. Visit her online at www.ashleyperez.com, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Read more about her response to book banning here: https://linktr.ee/ashleyhopeperez
  
  
• I.W. Gregorio: 
  I. W. Gregorio (she/her) is a practicing surgeon by day, award-winning YA writer by night.  Her debut novel, None of the Above was a Lambda Literary Finalist, a Publishers Weekly Flying Start, and named to the ALA Rainbow List, among other honors. It has also been banned by the Leander, TX School District, and is on the infamous “Krause List” that Texas Rep. Matt Krause worries “might make students feel discomfort.” 
  
  Her second novel, This is My Brain in Love, was an Amazon Best Book and a Bank Street Best Book, and won the 2021 Schneider Family Book Award.  She is proud to be board member of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, and is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books™ and its former VP of Development. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, New York Daily News, Scientific American and Journal of General Internal Medicine, among others. A recovering ice hockey player, she lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.
  
  
• Andrew Karre: Andrew is executive editor at Dutton Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, focusing on YA and MG, fiction and nonfiction. In 2005, he helped launch the YA imprint Flux. He was an editorial director at Lerner Publishing Group from 2008 through 2014, overseeing Carolrhoda Books and founding Carolrhoda Lab. He has published first novels by such noted authors as Maggie Stiefvater, A.S. King, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, Blythe Woolston, Carrie Mesrobian, and E.K. Johnston.
  
  
• Mark Oshiro: Mark Oshiro is the award-winning author of the young adult books Anger is a Gift (2019 Schneider Family Book Award) and Each of Us a Desert, both with Tor Teen, as well as their middle grade books The Insiders and You Only Live Once, David Bravo with Harper Collins. They are also the co-author (with Rick Riordan) of the upcoming Percy Jackson novel centered on Nico di Angelo and Will Solace. When not writing, they are trying to pet every dog in the world. Mark is based in Atlanta, GA.
  
  
• Robin Stevenson: Robin was born in Leeds, England, and lived in London and Plymouth before immigrating to Canada as a kid. She lived briefly in Japan and in Australia, but mostly grew up in southern Ontario. Robin studied philosophy and social work, and spent ten years as a social worker, crisis counselor and university instructor. She began writing back in 2005, on parental leave, and never stopped. Robin now writes full-time,  both fiction and non-fiction, for all ages–babies to adults. She sometimes does freelance editing or teaches creative writing courses, and she often visit schools and libraries and attends conferences to talk about books and writing, as well as LGBTQ+ history, community, and rights.  She is also active in refugee advocacy and sponsorship.  Robin lives off the west coast of Canada, on southern Vancouver Island, with her partner, son, a lovely cat, and the best dog ever. She is currently working on a mystery novel for adults.
  
  
• Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson (Moderator): Tasslyn Magnusson writes books and poetry for kids. She writes poetry for grown-ups too! Because everybody needs poems! She received her MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota in January 2017. She lives in Prescott, WI (really, really close to Saint Paul, MN) with her husband, two kids, and two dogs. When she’s not writing in her “hidey hole” as her children call it, she’s busy reading for literary journals, working with the Society for Young Inklings and in general doing whatever she can to be near books and kids and other writers. Dr. Magnusson created and maintains a national database of book censorship efforts, hosted by the EveryLibrary Institute.
  

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