SFWA’s Role in Resisting Book Bans through Court Challenges

Writer, 

I spent the weekend at the Willamette Writers Conference, where Charlie Jane Anders was our Friday night keynote. She spoke to us about being curious and weird and unpredictable, while another theme was running in the background: we are writing in the middle of impossibly hard times. 

The arts are being defunded. Books are being banned – taken off library shelves. Stories and authors are being silenced. 

We are being told what to read, what to think, and how to live in the world. 

Writers have to refuse that silencing. We have to tell our stories. But how do we do that in the face of challenges to our intellectual and creative freedom?

That’s where we come in.

On July 24, SFWA jointly signed onto an amicus brief with nine other literary organizations. We are challenging a 2023 Iowa state law that would remove hundreds of books from K-12 libraries. Books like A Handmaid’s Tale, Maus, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. 

Can you imagine a world without these stories?

I’ve already seen some of my favorite books banned across the United States. In fact, Every Heart a Doorway by Seannan McGuire was banned in a Florida school district. Honestly, that makes me angry. McGuire’s series upended my thinking on worldbuilding and setting and magic and possibility. She made me think about our highly distinct and wildly transformative experiences of childhood. She helped me remember that it’s okay to be different – that how the world defines us is not necessarily who we are. We are more than someone’s story of us. 

We are our own story, and we need to share the world as we see it. 

That’s the core of why we push hard against book bans, but also – this is our industry. This is our livelihood. Laws like SF 496 impact our book sales and distribution. As an organization that supports writers and the work they produce, we won’t stand for unfair and prejudicial practices that limit our sales and also impact future acquisitions and editing. 

We fight against book bans to protect our work and the freedom to read, to think, and to create, unencumbered by the demands and expectations of the political climate. 

We will continue to fight for you and your work, as we focus on empowering an inclusive, resilient, and diverse creative industry where our stories can shine.

Keep creating,

Kate Ristau 

SFWA President