Amid sexual harassment allegations, Sherman Alexie declines an award and delays his paperback
One of the latest shocks in the #MeToo movement has been the sexual harassment allegations against Sherman Alexie, the National Book Award–winning author of beloved classics The Absolutely True Diary… Read more »
Sherman Alexie, citing depression and a dream, cancels his You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me book tour
“I don’t believe in the afterlife as a reality, but I believe in the afterlife as metaphor, and my mother, from the afterlife, is metaphorically kicking my ass.” That’s Sherman… Read more »
As in Mississippi, boycotts in North Carolina following anti-LGBTQ law
Following up on yesterday’s post about Mississippi’s House Bill 1523, there’s also been upheaval in North Carolina, where House Bill 2—aka the “bathroom law,” which similarly limits civil liberties for… Read more »
As North Carolina’s controversial HB2 legislation goes into effect, booksellers and other small businesses are already coping with the fallout
Several weeks ago, the North Carolina state legislature held an emergency session in order to strike down a Charlotte ordinance intended to allow transgender individuals to use the public restroom of their… Read more »
Virginia’s “Beloved bill” would let parents block sexually explicit literature in the classroom
In 2013, the Washington Post’s T. Rees Shapiro profiled Laura Murphy, a Fairfax County, Virginia parent, whose son, Blake Murphy, was assigned Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved for his… Read more »
ALA’s most challenged books list
Yesterday, the American Library Association (ALA) released its annual list of the most frequently challenged and banned books in libraries across the country. Part of the organization’s State of America’s… Read more »
Stephen Colbert gives Amazon the middle finger while giving one debut author the “Colbert bump”
The PR backlash against Amazon continues apace, with Stephen Colbert joining the chorus of dissatisfied authors. Adding his name to a list of unhappy authors that includes John Green, James… Read more »
ALA releases their list of the most challenged books of 2013
The American Library Association just released their annual “State of America’s Libraries” report, and with it, their annual list of the country’s most challenged books. According to the ALA, the… Read more »
Authors are booksellers on Small Business Saturday
In a truly wonderful show of support for independent bookstores, over a thousand authors volunteered to work as booksellers at indie bookstores on Small Business Saturday this year. That’s right: authors,… Read more »
Sherman Alexie and Laurie Halse Anderson address censorship
Yesterday the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression released videos of bestselling authors Sherman Alexie and Laurie Halse Anderson discussing the censorship of young adult literature. For a time, Alexie’s… Read more »