Dave Eggers, McSweeney's Partnering with S.Dak. Indie to Distribute Free Banned Books

Dave Eggers

After the Rapid City, S. Dak., school board chose to ban five books and destroy hundreds of copies of those titles, Dave Eggers and McSweeney's have partnered with Rapid City independent bookstore Mitzi's Books to distribute free copies of the banned books to local high school seniors, CBR reported.

The banned titles include How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue; The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky; Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel; and Eggers's own novel The Circle. The books were assigned to English 12 reading lists prior to the school board's decision.

High school seniors in the Rapid City area can visit Mitzi's Books and receive a copy of each book for free. They can also write to amanda@daveeggers.net to have copies shipped directly to them.

"The mass destruction of books by school boards is an unconscionable horror," Eggers said, "and the freethinking young people of South Dakota shouldn't be subjected to it. For every copy the school board destroys, let's add a new one to the local circulation."

The school board is expected to address their plans to destroy the books at a meeting on May 17. Eggers will head to Rapid City on May 16 for an event at Mitzi's Books. He hopes some of the other banned authors will join him, as well as local students and teachers, for a discussion of the books and their proposed destruction. More details about the event will be announced closer to the date.

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