Over 1,500 authors in the USA have joined forces in a protest against so-called "book bans", i.e. that books considered controversial are banned from schools and libraries, reports Sveriges Radio's Culture News.
For me, it's fascism to ban books, says Samira Ahmed, member of the authors' organization Authors Against Book Bans, to the channel and continues:
We think that the freedom to read is a fundamental right for all people.
In 2023, a record number of books were banned from American schools and libraries. According to the American Library Association (ALA), a total of 4,240 titles were censored, of which 47 percent concerned LGBTQI issues or racism.
An example is the graphic novel "Gender Queer", which deals with how it can be for a young person to come out as non-binary and asexual. Maia Kobabe's book has been called "USA's most banned book", and was recently released in Swedish translation.
