Mark your calendars:
Banned Books Week 2025 will be held from October 5–11, 2025.
Banned Books Week is an annual event that celebrates the freedom to read and raises awareness of the importance of open access to information. The American Library Association (ALA) and libraries around the world participate in the celebration, which takes place during the last week of September each year.
STOP BOOK BANS organizer and president, Mike Ratner was a young participant in the first Banned Books Week when it was launched in 1982. We honor this week in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries.
By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country.
Some books that have been banned or challenged in 2024 include:
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Adult fiction
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya, The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, Christine by Stephen King, Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith, Nineteen Eighty-four, and My Sister's Keeper
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Other books
Beartown by Fredrik Backman, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde, The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, and The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank
Questions about bannedbooksweek.org?
Reach out to the Banned Books Week Coordinator and the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom who are in partnership with the Banned Books Week Coalition (that we support). For questions concerning the week, please e-mail coordinator@bannedbooksweek.org
To learn more about us:
Contact the STOP BOOK BANS (SBB) campaign chief at Info@StopBookBans.com
To reach Mike Ratner, president of the SBB email him at Mike@StopBookBans.com
