Visiting Toni Morrison: Sites of Memory, on exhibit at Princeton University’s Firestone Library from now through June 4, 2023, is like going to a sauna. You enter a warm, windowless space, and as you rotate your way through each experience, you find you’re dunked suddenly into something that barrages the senses—fire-singed early drafts, a detailed map, alternate endings for Beloved, the photograph that inspired Jazz. But it’s also like taking a cold plunge: you’re carried along on the continuous current of Morrison’s voice and work, and you duck out refreshed, tingling, alive with more possibilities than you’d realized there could be. 

The exhibit pays careful attention to the geography of imagined space, as well as the processes by which Morrison’s novels—which seem so inevitable in their final form—took years of wrangling, revising, discarding, drafting, and re-forming. In her essay “The Site of Memory,” Morrison writes:

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory—what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our “flooding.”

The 2023 Women’s Prize longlist has been announced! After the 1991 Booker Prize shortlist was announced, then called the Man Booker Prize, and no women authors appeared on it, a group of journalists met and wanted more. Together, they founded the Women’s Committee and began the quest for starting a literary prize of their own, exclusively for women authors.

Now in their 28th year, the committee chooses what they deem the best contemporary works by women writers yearly to honor with the prize, announcing a longlist of 16 books, and later, on April 26, a shortlist of just 6 books. 

Chair of judges Louise Minchin said of the 2023 longlisted books: “[They are] a glorious celebration of the boundless imagination and creative ambition of women writers over the past year. . . . They all offer fresh perspectives on history and humanity, exploring hard truths with empathy, sensitivity, directness, and sometimes infectious humor.” This year’s judges, along with Louise Minchin, are Rachel Joyce, Bella Mackie, Irenosen Okojie, and Tulip Siddiq. 

The winner of the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced on June 14. 

The controversies and talking points from this year's Academy Awards so far

If you’re looking for an anti-censorship group to get involved with, you’re in luck. There are dozens across the country, with more popping up all of the time. While there is certainly a need for a national push against censorship — we need politicians at the federal level to do something — work at the ground level in one’s own community is essential. Find below a roundup of anti-censorship groups who shared their information via this survey in early January. This information has been dropped into a Google Sheet, which you can save a copy of and use as you see fit.

This is, by nature, an incomplete roundup. It includes only the groups who shared their information on the survey. If you know of other groups, feel free to continue utilizing the link above to share information about them. In addition to developing this database of groups, those who share information about their work are given access to a suite of tools and resources to help in the work, thanks to our friends at EveryLibrary. Note, too, that not all of these groups focus solely on anti-censorship efforts; some are also focused more broadly on student rights and education but have anti-censorship as part of their mission and work. Not all groups have web or social media presence quite yet, but keep an eye out.

When you talk about grassroots efforts, look to the groups below. These are not funded by political groups or organizations and are not in the pockets of politicians. If you are in the position to get involved, do so; if you can’t, these are some places where you can also donate money to help the cause.

National Level

Comic Book Legal Defense FundFor the People: A Leftist Library Project (More details coming soon)Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)Red Wine and BlueStop Moms for “Liberty”

Arkansas

No Book Bans Coalition (Bentonville)

Florida

Citizens for Truth and Justice in Education (Central FL)Clay County Reading AllianceFlorida Freedom to Read ProjectFoundation 451 (Brevard County)Volusia Fight for the First

Idaho

Idaho First Amendment Defense GroupSociety of Secret Library Friends

Illinois

Illinois Right to ReadLibrary_defenseProtect Our Library (Lincolnwood)

Indiana

Hamilton County Against Censorship (Fishers and Noblesville)

Iowa

Annie’s Foundation (Johnston)

Kansas

Kansas Against Banned BooksSt. Marys Library Alliance (St. Marys)

Louisiana

Lafayette Citizens Against CensorshipLivingston Parish Library AllianceSt Tammany Library Alliance

Maine

Maine Library Association

Massachusetts

Mass Right to Read

Michigan

MI Right to Read

Missouri

Uturn in Education (Nixa)

New Jersey

NJASL/NJLA Regional Response Team

New York

No Book Bans Coalition (Brooklyn)PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Program

North Carolina

Guilford County

North Dakota

North Dakota First Amendment Defense Group

South Carolina

Freedom in Libraries Advocacy Group (FLAG) (Greenville)Freedom to Read SCSouth Carolina Association of School Librarians

Tennessee

Right to Read Sumner (Sumner County)

Texas

Access Education RRISD (Round Rock)Children’s Defense Fund of TexasFREDom FightersGalveston County Library AllianceKISD Equity 4 All (Katy)Mosaic Community Library (Austin and Travis County)No Book Bans Coalition (Houston)Stand Up for Tomball ISD (Tomball)Texans for the Right to Read

Utah

Let Utah Read

Virginia

Loudoun4all (Loudoun)

Wisconsin

No Book Bans Coalition (Sheboygan)

Don’t see an organization near you? Use this guide to build your own local anti-censorship group.

Book Censorship News: March 10, 2023

Over 90 books have been pulled from shelves in Martin County, Florida, schools “for review.” You already know this is censorship and you already know it’s Moms for Liberty behind it. “Requiring book vendors to ‘rate’ titles with sexual content before selling them to school districts will be a priority for the Texas House, Speaker Dade Phelan announced Tuesday.” Remember how over 20 people were killed in a shooting in Uvalde last year in the same state? The Keene Memorial Library’s (Nebraska) decision to allow patrons to demand books be moved to other sections of the library is going to be a nightmare. A must-read about the way these book bans infiltrate and impact public libraries. This story out of Moon Public Library (Pennsylvania) shows how not bending to demand means the bottom line is impacted (a.k.a. retaliation). Article is, of course, paywalled, but I’ve broken it for you because this should be free. The state of school board meetings right now in Brevard County (Florida) and elsewhere. Turns out that the banning of The Upside of Unrequited from a Sparta, New Jersey, middle school came at the behest of a single complainer.This pastor is using his free time to complain about books at Robeson County schools (North Carolina)…and the paper is giving him space to talk about it. What even in the world? In good news, Sold and Last Night at the Telegraph Club survived their challenges in Flagler County, Florida.This Book Is Gay will remain on shelves in Hillsborough County schools (Florida). The Oklahoma legislative push to ban books from kids AND adults advances.Here’s a rundown of the latest Blount County, Tennessee, school board meeting on book banning and restrictions. Wareham schools (Massachusetts) apparently never had a book challenge policy prior to last month, and now they do. Policies like this should be standard practice; how these policies are followed is key to successfully combatting censorship. How Drag Storytime has come under fire in Jackson Heights in New York City. It should be interesting to see how Laramie County school board members (Wyoming) figure out how to define “sexually explicit” in their library policies.18 books have so far been pulled from Penncrest schools (Pennsylvania), with another 11 currently under review. The Livingstone Parish Library director (Louisiana) has decided to resign amid all of the book censorship controversy in his library. “This week, the Campbell County Public Library Board will be going over proposed changes to the library’s collection development policy. The suggested revisions were created by a Florida-based attorney affiliated with a national nonprofit organization. […] Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit organization based in Orlando, Florida, that provides free assistance and representation to advance ‘religious freedom, the sanctity of life and the family,’ according to its website.” So this Wyoming school district drafted a policy from a right-wing religious group? Separation of church and state does not exist.The new policies in Cy-Fair Independent School District (Texas) would restrict YA books to only middle and high schoolers, and any books “beyond” the YA designation would require parental permission. So that means even classics are inaccessible to teen readers?Pinellas School Board (Florida) will reconsider its ban on The Bluest Eye over the summer. Again, the proponents of these bills would like you to believe their opponents are perverts. Pedophiles and “groomers” who are titillated at the idea of showing pornography to children. I didn’t see anyone like that among the hundred or so quietly reading demonstrators at the Minot Public Library on Saturday, March 4.” An excellent piece about the quiet protest against North Dakota book ban bills in Minot. Let’s be clear: by putting this article about how Moms For Liberty behind a paywall, Lancaster’s newspaper is complicit in burying vital information from its community. This story is about Moms attempting to take over the Warwick school board (Pennsylvania), and I broke the paywall for you. Guess who puts their information out there for free? It’s Moms. It’s real neat how right-wing politicians are actually using children as pawns in their wars. This time, a Kansas republican claimed a 4th grader’s rainbow drawing was “proof” of indoctrination.Buried in this story is a debate over whether or not Gender Queer could remain in the Hastings, Minnesota, school libraries.The Faulkner County Library (Arkansas) canceled all of their public programs because bigots don’t understand how programs work, as seen after their anger over a Drag Queen event. A key part of this story is the director pointing out how much complaining about books there is and yet none of the complainers fill out the complaint forms. And here’s who is pushing to ban books in British Columbia, Canada…and the group fighting to preserve the right to read. The Duval County Public Schools (FL) supervisor of book reviews has resigned. Perhaps because her bigoted comments have now come to light? “A Wilson County man in a new lawsuit is accusing the Wilson County Book Review Committee of violating the Tennessee Open Meetings Act, as well as the First Amendment, by holding secret meetings to determine what books could be restricted or banned.” More of this, please. We all know about the Moms for Liberty list, so that’s not really interesting here. What is interesting is this is the first time I’ve seen books being challenged in Lonoke County, Arkansas.Greeley-Evans School District (CO) says the classic Beloved can stay in the high school library. Gender Queer will be able to remain in Hancock County schools (ME).When you read stories like this one, you just see how made up this entire book ban crisis really is (Pitt County, NC). A mother puts on a book crisis performance for the Montgomery County School Board (VA) over Flamer. They aren’t even creative in how they introduce their dramatics. Western Placer Unified School District (CA) listened to book crisis performers over The Hate U Give being used in 9th grade English classes. The executive director of the Shreve Memorial Library (LA) speaking against book bans and the “parental rights” that already exist should be a model for others. They keep calling Flamer pornographic which makes clear they have no idea what pornographic means (Collier County, FL). Regional School Unit 24 (ME) will keep Gender Queer and Queer in high school libraries.

Vish is back! Man United are back! Bums are back!

Marcus, Vish, Jim and Pete discuss Wout Weghorst’s caress of some important Liverpool signage and the FA finally taking a stand on Arsenal’s celebrations and investigating just what it’s all about. Plus, Vish exposes his true title race allegiances and Pete unloads on Two Door Cinema Club, for some reason.

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In the high school library that I manage, I run a manga club that is very popular with the students. In the past eight years I’ve seen it grow and evolve with the students. Manga is by far the most popular kind of book we have in the library, especially with those who claim they don’t like to read “regular” books. From a librarian’s perspective, this is a win-win because reading is reading, if they’re reading manga all the better. You don’t need to lead them on to “real” books or to any other kind of reading if they don’t want to.

From my perspective, we have lots of kids who stick with manga for years on end and don’t stray to anything else unless they absolutely have to and this is perfectly fine with me. We’ve already written about great manga apps before, what I’m going to highlight below are the best manga web sites where you can legally read manga for free and sites that offer other manga related news or opinions. I see students reading manga on the computers in the library quite often and these are the manga websites that I recommend they use as I know how popular a medium it is.

March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). When I think of this holiday, the word “celebration” comes to mind. Often, life as a transgender person is reduced by media depictions to overcoming challenges and suffering. And while trans and non-binary people do face significant challenges and discrimination, TDOV is to me a reminder to recognize and appreciate the fulfilling lives and contributions transgender people and communities have found despite insistence by others that such things are impossible to find.

Read on to find 22 must-read works of literature by transgender and non-binary authors. I’ve organized the list by age group as well as fiction and nonfiction to help readers best find what they are looking for.

Consider this list a starting point rather than a comprehensive list of notable work by trans and non-binary authors. For more recommendations, check out Book Riot’s LGBTQ archives. There you’ll find curated lists on a variety of queer themes, including The Best LGBTQ Books of 2022.

Once you’ve found new books to find at your local library or bookstore, read this essay on the growth of transgender representation in literature. In it, the author reflects on their experience reading Little Fish by Casey Plett and how it resonated with them as a writer.