Ira Wells, author of On Book Banning, will be joining the virtual panel “Defending the Right to Read” alongside Authors Against Book Bans members Fin Leary, Padma Venkatraman, and Josh Cook. With Wells’ new book as a launching point, the panelists will discuss the current rise of book bans in schools and libraries, the history of previous cases of book censorship, and recent efforts of resistance against the oppression of literature.
The virtual event, organized by Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA, will take place on Wednesday, August 6 at 7PM. The event is free to attend with registration here.
More details here.
Grab a copy of On Book Banning here!
The freedom to read is under attack.
From the destruction of libraries in ancient Rome to today’s state-sponsored efforts to suppress LGBTQ+ literature, book bans arise from the impulse toward social control. In a survey of legal cases, literary controversies, and philosophical arguments, Ira Wells illustrates the historical opposition to the freedom to read and argues that today’s conservatives and progressives alike are warping our children’s relationship with literature and teaching them that the solution to opposing viewpoints is outright expurgation. At a moment in which our democratic institutions are buckling under the stress of polarization, On Book Banning is both rallying cry and guide to resistance for those who will always insist upon reading for themselves.
Ira Wells is a critic, essayist, and an associate professor at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, where he teaches in the Northrop Frye stream in literature and the humanities in the Vic One program. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Globe and Mail, Guardian, The New Republic, and many other venues. His most recent book is Norman Jewison: A Director’s Life. He lives in Toronto with his wife and children.
