Unbanning Books: Bold Creators Take A Stand - Jerry Craft / Gayle Forman / Betsy Gomez

Fantastic panel on book bans to start off the 2025 SCBWI Summer Conference. Here are summaries of three of the panelists' contributions, but FREE REPLAY ACCESS to the entire panel video is available by registering for it at scbwi.org, the video will also be on the SCBWI Youtube channel once it's been uploaded.

Panelist Jerry Craft is the author-illustrator of the bestselling graphic novels New Kid and its companion book, Class Act. New Kid was the winner of the 2020 John Newbery Medal, among other honors. 

Jerry starts off the panel talking about his first experiences with his books being banned: "My books look at the innocence of middle school—no sex, drugs, profanity, or anything like that . . . So when I first heard that my books were being banned, I was as surprised as anyone, because I had always tried to do family comic strips, family comic books . . . I have received more invites and interviews for being banned than for some of the awards that I have won, which is definitely bittersweet." While Jerry feels obligated to talk about the bans, he wishes he didn't have to to the degree that he has done and is thankful to be a part of the discussion today on how we begin to go about the process of unbanning.

Gayle Forman, renowned YA/MG author, tells us about her breakout book from 16-17 years ago, IF STAY being challenged: 'That was an innocent time when books were just challenged for sex, the book bans we have seen in the last 6 to 7 years are an entirely different matter. . . When you look behind the book banning movement, a lot of what is/was fueling this is an effort to privatize public education, something that used to be a common good that both sides of the political spectrum, all sides, supported . . . The majority of Americans support the freedom to read and we are in a situation, both here and in so many other places, where a small minority get to ram things down the throat of this country that are universally unpopular."

Betsy Gomez is the Assistant Director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. The office has been working in this space and tracking book bans in libraries (school and public) since 1967. ALA has had a Banned Books Week since 1982. UNITE AGAINST BOOK BANS, is an ALA initiative for public action on behalf of libraries that we can all join today. 

Betsy brings up her work experience with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: "Comics, historically, are particularly vulnerable to censorship and bans. 2021 saw a sharp spike in censorship around the country. It is organized and insidious and we need to band together to get through this." Betsy points out that the censors' language today is from the same 'playbook' censorship groups used in the 1950s when censoring comics.

The panel discusses the use of the term 'book ban' as a catchall for censorship, but go on to explain the differences between challenges, bans, and censorship by exclusion. Betsy also shares, "Several states have passed laws requiring age limitations, targeting specific types of content, and a lot of these laws are intentionally vague to facilitate what we often refer to as soft censorship, or self censorship. When library workers and educators don't understand the parameters of the law, they tend to react out of fear and and understandably so, and remove materials preemptively, or decide not to order materials because they might be controversial."

To learn more about book bans and how you can help fight censorship, check out the summaries of the other panelists' on the Official Conference blog and be sure to check back on the SCBWI Youtube channel for the free replay of the entire session. 

Ending on words of hope, from Jerry: "Even having one of your own kids write to an author reminding them why they are doing this. That one letter will counteract three dozen hate emails threatening to ban their book." Jerry centers the child reader again in this fight over censorship, "Kids are begging to be seen, especially in books where they are not the victims." And in better news, Jerry's NEW KID was recently picked for a Virginia school's One Book, One School reading program in which every 6th grader got their own copy. 

Gayle Forman urges attendees to "Write the story that needs to be written, unpack your own self censorship. Publishers continue to support books that do not bend the knee. Penguin Random House has taken a leadership role." And other publishers are encouraged to fight! Authors and illustrators can join Authors Against Book Bans as Gayle reminds us, "It's critical we work collectively and it is so important to work with local boards and entities as well as larger regional or national groups."

What gives Betsy Gomez hope: "All the advocates out there. Find the people in your community. No, you are not alone, this is happening everywhere. Reach out to ALA, reach out to your peers. We've been here before, the censors' language is the same playbook they used in the 1950s when censoring comics. We can get through this if we stick together."

Final words from Gayle Forman: Online activism is not enough. The majority of Americans support the freedom to read but do not know what is happening or what to do about it. 

Unbanning Books Panel: Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lee Rowland

From top left: Arthur Levine, Lee Rowland, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Kyle Zimmer, and Betsy Gomez

Maggie Tokuda-Hall (pictured, top right) is an award-winning author and one of the founders of Authors Against Book Bans. They are a national grassroots group of nearly 2,000 book creators (not just authors, they welcome illustrators, translators, anthology editors, etc...), and they're planning events all across the nation for this September's Banned Books week observance. "None of us fights alone."

Lee Rowland (pictured, top center) is the Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. They are a national alliance of 60 groups who all care about free expression, including SCBWI. (They turn 50 this year!) Lee is a life-long 1st amendment attorney. "The first amendment is with us," on the side of the people who believe in liberty and free expression. Public opinion is with us, too. Needs to be a popular social movement. And carrying that energy into November... Their grassroots effort: Right to Read network.

Some highlights from what Maggie Tokuda-Hall shared:

Authors Against Book Bans offers training and guidance to authors whose books have been banned, and to other book creators who want to help and speak in front of school boards or library boards, and information about what project 2025 promises.

 "Pornography" is becoming defined as what some people don't like (like the existence of Queer people), which allows the banners to criminalize the creators, and criminalize the librarians who share those books (promising on page 5 of Project 2025 to register librarians as sex offenders for carrying books with Queer characters and/or themes). Other events planned include candidate score card making activities, read-ins, and more!

"It's not about the books. It's never been about the books. ...It's about identity panic, people realizing their consolidated power is starting to wane....None of us are alone."

Creators, Never obey in advance. (Don't self-censor.) We should not be catering to what we are afraid what might happen to our books. We should create bravely. 

Publishers, Never obey in advance. Publish bravely. Be stridently on the side of the freedom to read, all the time. Things publishers can do: 1) be transparent with authors about who on your team can support authors when their book is banned. 2) make toolkits available to help. 3) report bans yourself (report to multiple different places). 4) lawsuits, sign amicus briefs, 

Some highlights from what Lee Rowland shared: 

"The law is never enough to save us. It's necessary but not sufficient." Book bans keep happening because it's a political movement - right now, led by Moms for Liberty, who have a three part agenda. 1) banning books. 2) being anti-trans. 3) killing the public education system - full stop.

Even if you're not an activist, use your public institutions. Support an author reading from banned books. Weigh in with your local government. Write a letter to the editor at your local media. 

We're winning, so the banners have shifted their tactics - they're taking banning out of spotlight and doing it out of the public eye, because they're losing the battles in public. Our greatest tool in this moment is transparency.

Full of passion and hope, the session ended with an audience Q&A.

Bottom line: How can you help? 

Maggie's advice: Buy diverse literature. And using public libraries and taking out diverse books from those libraries will help support the publisher, author, and our public institutions.

Free UnBanning Books Panel and Last Call For the SCBWI Summer 2024 Virtual Conference - #SCBWIsummer24 Starts Aug 1, 2024!

Whether of not you'll be attending the online conference, we hope you'll join the SCBWI community for Unbanning Books - a free panel discussion with Betsy Gomez, Arthur Levine, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Lee Rowland, and Kyle Zimmer on Aug 1, 2024 from 2:30pm-3:30pm Pacific. You can register for free here.

You can find out about all the #SCBWIsummer24 keynotes, breakout sessions, panels, socials and so much more here. 

Hope to see you at one or both! 

And make sure to bookmark The Official SCBWI Conference Blog, where the entire #SCBWIsummer24 Team Blog will be posting live updates, reports, and inspiration. Cheers to Don Tate, Jaime Temairik, Jolie Stekly, Justin Campbell, and Debbie Ridpath Ohi for joining me (Lee Wind) on Team Blog for this summer conference!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Editors and Agents Panel: Deeba Zargarpur

Deeba Zargarpur enthusiastically joined Simon & Schuster in March 2020 and is now a Senior Editor at its Books for Young Readers and Salaam Reads imprints. Deeba began her editorial career at Disney-Hyperion and Freeform where she worked on both middle grade and young adult titles. She's also spent time working in book packaging where she created and edited a wide range of children’s and adult literature. Her aim is to acquire commercial books that empower young people from diverse backgrounds. Follow Deeba on Twitter and Instagram at @deebazargarpur.

While Deeba loves and acquires picture books, she notes Salaam Reads is also looking to expand into older, longer fictions portraying Muslim main characters. She acquires PB, MG, YA and graphic novels and her list spans about 45 books; see publisher's websites for submission details.

When asked about the barrage of book bans that have been happening lately and whether that's impacting submissions or acquisitions, Deeba says no, that book bans have been happening forever so it continues to not impact the sorts of stories she acquires. Instead her answer focuses on the importance of libraries as not only a safe space for discovering new books, but as perhaps the only place people of different socioeconomic backgrounds can afford to find and explore a variety of titles.

The best career advice Deeba's received was from her mentor and editorial director Kendra Levin: 

"It can always wait until tomorrow." 

Deeba is a bit of a perfectionist and it's easy to get burned out in the deadline-heavy world of publishing. Take care of yourself first before you take care of your job. Deeba says this advice applies to authors and illustrators, too, the world of publishing isn't going anywhere!