Hi everyone. I think were going to get started. I hope everyone is doing good. My name is lily and im not Public Programs according to. We are so glad that you joined us. To celebrate them and help us launch our new series pet out loud. They will be introduced momentarily. It is a new monthly series presented by pen america. Provides us with an amazing topic. The free expression. Next monday october 2 it will be back on the second floor. We will speak about border crossings. We will welcome the poets. On december 11. We are performing that. The National Book award. The one in december will be appear. The other two will be downstairs on the second floor. I want to take a minute on the rest of the team been so judgmental for pulling this together. Finally is my pleasure to introduce nancy wyden. [applause]. Thank you lily. Im so happy to have you here. The strand was founded by my grandfather couple years ago in 1927 and up until three months ago because he retired. We were part of our rope which was an area that ran along Fourth Avenue from union place. There were 48 bookstores in todays we have survived years of big box stores. Im very thankful readers and writers like you. Were so honored to be celebrating banned book week. The tireless defender of freedom of expression in this awesome panel of authors right here his books have been banned or challenged challenge because of the presentation in the content we are so proud to have these authors on the shelf. David david levin thing is here. Here is the author of the wealth of awardwinning novels. Nick and noras and the grayson which is on grain. Also editorial director where you have to start working on the kids favorite series. The honest portrayal of inner city innercity life have met with challenges across the country. The experience of working with a social worker. They inspired the first novel which is the Los Angeles Times book prize for young price for young adult literature. Her most recent novel kind of like brothers was chosen by npr as one of the best books of 2014 and an ala noble book for children. Then we have the multi talented area creative right here. It started early when she have the public comments. Since then she has published the graphic memoirs awkward definition along with the novel at adam. Her comment has received multiple challenges due to its explicit language and content depicting life in middle school. Also here to moderate this powerful panel is jason the low on the publisher and coowner of lee and low books. Please join in welcoming these wonderful voices please join me in welcoming them into the stand. Okay. Here we go. First i want to thank penn for having us all out here to talk about these important issues. With the American Library association and the office of intellectual freedom they have deemed that more than half of all challenged books are diverse books. It was really will put by author melinda lowe that has written a lot of articles on the web. She states that diverse books have to do with lgbt characters disabled characters and focus on issues of race, religion and non western settings. What i have just defined for you is all of the books that liam lowe publishes as well as all of the books that these authors have published as well. Alright so. All right so. We will start with some questions lets talk about the cover of two boys kissing which we should be able to see right behind me. The image is a little interpretation of what the book is about and has the same time has led to numerous book challenges because as we all know many books that are challenged are by people who have never read the book. So, tell us briefly about the book and what kind of statement you are trying to make with the cover . Also, where you prepared for the pushback it would receive in terms of challenges the book is about many things is based on a true story and they make the records for the continuous kiss. They dont have much of a narc. There are other boys around who also have storylines. Book was also titled two boys kissing so is pretty much guaranteed by guaranteed that we would show two boys kissing on the cover. And that is exactly what random house did. Basically having the kiss on the cover made it easier for it to be criticized. We still wouldve had challenges. The top five books also had clear content. Definitely a trend that goes beyond that. I knew very much titling that book that way. Would certainly make it vulnerable to attack and challenge both actual and preemptive. Or just to ignore that identity completely. That is all the more reason to write about them. Books like this i mean no. We were very much in the infancy of clear why a when i was a young adult. We had books like that. It did not really happen until the last decade. Is now about getting as many clear voices out there. Did you ever occur to you that you could one day do what youre doing now, like back then . Certainly the path that it took was not what i would have expected. It is a little bit of a step for Babysitters Club to two boys kissing. The reason people loved it was because it granted all of the characters humanity and it was a ferried to tell the truth to kids. When it came to telling my own truth it made absolute sense to write why a. What are you going to be sitting in this amazing room. Twentyfive years later. What will you be talking about. This probably would not had been my top guest. At the same time it does feel very natural. I was lucky to be a part of the wave of authors who all decided to write about our own identities. You have to be clear to write great clear characters. While this pnr is about banned books this is a practice known as soft censorship. To define that. It is like banning books on the down low. It is really about when books are deemed inappropriate before an actual challenge actually occurs. It means that it actually never gets a Library Shelf or a classroom. To talk about what you write about. In the characters and settings that you depict in your books reflect your background. You will see this right behind me. And then make sure you tell us what your reaction would be to a two at Suburban School library that comes from a predominantly white student body. I had head that specific thing said to me. I wasnt a suburb. And the teacher came up to me and said she literally said this. We only had two ethnic students in our school. And the other things are totally devoid. They were not ethnic. You are only going to teach them books about things you already know. You wont teach them anything else. Forget about that for a second. A little bit about my book. It is a story of a 15yearold boy in the bronx and its about a week in his life. He and his mom and his little brother are homeless. Its just him trying to figure out away to get his family out of the shelter that they are in. Its really disgusting and gross. It is written in sort of a slang of the bronx. It does have curse words. God for bid. And so, i forgot what the question was. I think i get more thoughts about censorship than actual censorship. The whole thing of our students wont relate to this. This is for innercity kids. Its not for us. Or they have it in the library or in the School Library and the literally tried to book out every february for black history month. You cant check it in. As part of the artwork. And then february 29 they put that sucker wife and is just not available. Or another thing i get a lot is that it is in the library but its never shall with the other books. Its like segregated to a shelf back in the library called like urban lit or street lit. Anyway, it is in the back its kinda like we have but we dont really had it because its not mixed in with all the other books. Thats where my books are. Its very frustrating i never see my books mixed in on the shelf when its like beach reads. Tyrone falls in love. Its just so frustrating that its so segregated and so removed from people just stumbling upon and finding it by accident almost. In checking it out. What youre talking about really is you know the segregation that segregation you are saying its kind of hidden away that cuts down on the discoverability of the book itself and no one is really going to be able to pick this book up because you cant really be able to reach it. You have to deliberately be looking for this book to find it. Have you had people who werent black that read this book and related to this. Of course. I get a lot of letters from kids who tell me they related to it. And most of it is because theyre thinking of what the story is actually about not just who is about. They can relate to it at Different Levels and just being a black kid from the bronx. Kids are able to do that more than adults think they will be able to be. What he we thick adults are afraid of. I really cant tell you. I think they are letting in to their home or their Community Something that is a little scary they feel like its the inner city. I dont know i want my kid to know about that. They know exactly what it is. Its just a fear we moved to the suburbs for a reason. And we really dont want that type of look around our kid. They are not thinking is a story about a little boy he was who is trying to help his family. They are just seen the setting in maybe the language he uses and its been offputting. Thats the thing like you say. Is not about the black experience is social economic things happening. And maybe single parenthood. There is a whole list of things i could cross over. Its important to say that its okay if it is about that. When i was growing up i was an entirely black and Latino Community and we read great gatsby and catcher in the ride. We read those books. But why is it not the other way around. Why cant entire White Community why cant they read something that is foreign to them as the great gatsby was to my neighborhood. All right. Ariel. I have not forgotten about you over there. It is stuck in the middle. It has been challenged so a challenge usually entails with the recommended reading list or from required reading. Tell us a bit about the anthology in the middle. And some of the larger implications related to book challenges and also tell us how you successfully defend a book so i think stuck in the middle it is an anthology of comments about middle school. By 17 cartoonist. Those books are not tame. They are both published for adults. They have never been challenged. Stuck in the middle however is marketed as a why a book. And so it has come under this kind of scrutiny but there is really nothing that bad in it. There is maybe a reference to teenagers thinking about engaging in sexual activity. It is really not that bad. Because it is a comic book this is why it has come under these challenges. On the sort of what the issue is that parents sort of open opened it up and they see the word bi tch and they see it written in big cartoony letters. They seek teenagers talking about sexual activities in the big speech balloons. And in immediately say that is bad i dont like that. They would have to actually read it to find what they dont like. I think their kids bring home the comment. And immediately decide. Not specifically for its content. And in terms of successfully defending it we have actually always have the comic book Legal Defense fund. It is amazing because they specialize in comics being unfairly targeted because images can be considered pornographic. In the way that prozac cant. The people there had always been really great. It has been challenged in many school libraries. I think they have managed to keep it on the shelves for some of them. Has it ever been a reader activism happening of people speaking on behalf of your book. And things like that. Honestly people dont feel that passionately about it because its not a big deal. It has not been the sort of thing where people are like i want to fight for that youth of the word. Weve been talking about diverse books. Its not very a diverse book. Everett write write a lot about clear characters. It is not that scandalous. In 2015 the actual statistics could be two to three times higher and the reason for that. If they receive a complaint about a book. It sidesteps in the protocol the reason i mention all this is because the intolerance of diversity in general. Seems to be on the rise. For the kinds of books that you all do. So as an author do you feel a greater responsibility to represent the algae bt community by publishing new books and defending past ones russian mark russian mark when it be funny if the answer was no. Of course you do. I think for the authors is a very hard position to be in. The worst thing you can say to an author who is on the books list. It might technically be true. Is very strange. 95 percent of the time its ends up being okay. And the the defenders defend it effectively. But its still a very fraught process. I have never met an authors book was banned or challenged to then wanted to back away. It doesnt need you to only push harder. To tell the truth. There are so many librarians and teachers and parents. They are trusting me. To represent whatever identity i want to represent. Theyre part of the bargain is because i cant be in every school. A lot of the times the challenge does not come through. Or not order books that have a black black kids on the cover. If you have to fight that. The goal is to silence you. And the result of the challenge is always to energize you into make you want to speak louder. Back to you. I read that you have worked in Child Protective Services in social work before he became an author. I was just wondering to me parents seem to have little control or influence over the other forms of entertainment that they are consuming on a regular basis. I was sort of thinking like why do people white do people still challenge books. Why are books singled out. Over other entertainment mediums. Is there any kind of psychology to any of this. Do you know. I think parents understand books. I dont think they know what their kids are looking at their phones. What is the snapshot. You take the book to bed with you. You read it. It gets in your system in a different way. The disc scrolling on your phone or online. Your member them forever. They want to be a part of that tradition not realizing again that almost all of the time people do defend the books and, again, in specifically when it comes to issues of identity whether its clear identity or another, its much easier for them to try to attack a book than try to attack people in the school itself and so they will try to if they dont want gay things talked about, they will not talk about in terms of students because people would be outraged but attacking a book as a symbol of those students, then they feel thats more acceptable and the good news is that its not. I think theres also an idea that books are supposed to be like for learning, they are supposed to be in the school to learn facts and, i think, most of people that challenge a books, dont read fiction so they dont know that reads are crazy, you know, provers things that touch you and speak to reality of inner life and when they discover these books or target them because they have things they dont like, they dont realize that most other books are also that intense and they just think that this is not what their kid at school should be doing at all. Its also like when they read books, they only read books Online Review or whatever those sites that are pull out the elements of the book did they turn my mic off . Is it on . They look at the elements and go, oh, well, this book has profanity, has sex and this, they find the Little Things to latch onto thats a negative in their mind and they dont see the book as a whole thing as like you were saying, arial, theres a connection that people make to a character and that they feel empathy for people and theres things that you can learn and may not be facts and figures, but you learn how to connect and how to see another persons life and walk in their shoes, they dont see that part. Theres, oral, reduces the book down to just basic things that are make it so cheapens the whole experience to me. So ariel, so looking back at challenges you face as well as looking forward to the books that youll create, more challenges on the horizon for you and your books, i mean, would you ever be tempted to selfsensor your books for the sake of avoiding future challenges . No. [laughter] i mean, yeah, no. Why would you do that . I mean, i guess i mean, i dont generally this is the only ya book i published, if i were to write another ya book, i would have that in mind. I dont know that if it would stop me. I mean, its possible, i guess, that i could leave something out if an editor or publisher told me that they thought it would not get the book into libraries and didnt feel worth it to me, maybe, but i think i would need somebody else to come to me and say, lets talk about this. I dont think in my own Creative Process i would leave stuff out because thats the depth of our okay, so last one here is for everyone. Feel free to jump in. So writing diverse books obviously comes with its own set of challenges, not only do you have to be a good writer who writes a compelling story themselves but you actually have to respond to responsibility of shouldering a cause, accurately representing marginalized voices, defending books is hard work for a lot of people, theres a lot of people involved in organizations, librarians, individuals, readers, i mean, theres a lot of pitching in, the authors themselves. I mean and the time that youre defending books when youre sitting here on a monday night take asway from the time that you could be writing, but, what keeps you going, what keeps you hopeful in terms of not only writing but actually being an activist for your work . Thats your question. [laughter] gentlemen first. That question was one of those blue book exams, part one. I mean [laughter] i think that, again, i think i mean, there are two different questions here in that in that i think you should be defending anything that youve written whatever your identity is and whatever your viewpoint is but specifically when your book is being attacked for the thing that you are, that certainly gives it a different element. Its not when rallying is censored for the witchcraft and harry potter, i imagine she doesnt take that personally as a wizard and witch whereas when i or alex or jazz jennings books are censored because they have clear context or even not writing about own sexuality, she has two boys kissing in drama, its a mantle of the people you love and mean a lot to you being attacked through your book being attacked. And so you have to take on that burden. I dont know that its its a mixture of activism and selfdefense quite honestly in a world where i dont know there might be hos