American Booksellers for Free Expression has launched a campaign for Banned Books Week 2024 centered on the theme Liberate Banned Books (#SetBooksFree).
"Resisting book bans is about liberation," ABFE noted. "It's about liberation for schools and libraries from the rash of book challenges that has exploded since 2021. It means liberating the more than 4,240 titles that have been challenged since 2021. It entails liberation for literary institutions who carry books that represent marginalized groups, especially books by people of color and LGBTQ+ people that have been disproportionately censored by book bans. And of course, it's about liberation for independent bookstores, who offer their communities access to diverse literature and for that have been targeted in book ban legislation. Literature and liberation are inseparable."
Banned Books Week 2024 will take place September 22-28. A member of the Banned Books Week Coalition, ABFE has offered education, programming, and resources for booksellers and their customers since 1990, when it began as the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. (ABFFE was folded into the ABA and renamed 10 years ago.)