Shares his Family History of ranching in texas lock and wrapping up our book at the bestselling nonfiction books according to book people bookstore in austin is vacationland a memoirist from humorist john hodgman. Some of these authors will be appearing on book tv, watch them on our website, booktv. Org. [inaudible conversation] hi everyone. I think were going to get started. How are you doing . Everybody doing good . [applause] thank you. My name is Lily Philpott and im the Public Events coordinator. Where so glad you joined us at the strand bookstore this evening both to celebrate banned books week and to help us launch our new series. This year banned books week run september 21 through the 30th and we are pleased to be celebrating the freedom to read and the three and countable authors, david levithan, coe booth and ariel schrag. Band out loud as a series presented in collaboration with the strand, the series provides us with a platform to amplify Diverse Voices and convene vital conversationson the way Free Expression affects writers and readers alike. Next monday, october 2 we will be back on the second floor with daniel and lily who will speak about physical linguistics and creative border crossings and on november 20 we will welcome poet sam stax and gin and verbally for readings and an intimate writer to write our conversation on craft and finally on december 11, we are conducting a feminist retrospective of the year with morgan jerkins, Carmen Maria Machado and lee who are long listed for the National Book award and they will consider womens roles at the forefront of the resistance looking back and forward. We hope you will join us for these events, they will be fantastic. The one in december will be here any other downstairs on the second floor. I want to take a moment to thank Caitlin Higgins and the rest of the amazing team who been so instrumental in pulling this series together and i want to thank steve sams, book tv for recording our event this evening. Its my pleasure to introduce nancy wyden who is the owner of the strand bookstore. [applause] thank you lily. Im so happyto have you here and being surrounded by our rare books. For a little bit of history, the strand was founded by my grandfather in 1927 and up until three months ago because he retired, we were part of book road which was an area that ran along Fourth Avenue from union place. At its height from 1880, there were 48 bookstores and today weve survived years of bigbox stores, amazon, ebooks so im thankful to readers and writers like you. We are so honored to be celebrating banned books week along with 10 of america. They are tireless defenders of freedom of expression and this awesome panel of authors right here whose books have been banned or challenged because of their presentation and content. We are so proud to havethese offers on our shelf. With us tonight. David levithan is here, hes the author of two boys kissing which was challenged in part because of the cover photography which depicts exactly what, exactly that. He is the author of all wealth of awardwinning beloved novels including nick and norahs infinite playlist, or grayson with john green. David is editorial director at scholastic where he got his start working on my kids favorite series, the babysitters club. Then we have coe booth, whose honest portrayal of innercity life has met with challenges across the country. She is a bronx native who holds an na in psychology and an mfa in creative writing. Her experience working as a social worker in new york city emergency Childrens Service inspired her first novel, tyrell which is the Los Angeles Times book prize for young adult literature. Her most recent novel, kinda like brothers, was chosen by npr as one of the best books of 2014 and an ala novel book for children. Then we have the multi talented ariel schrag, creative, right here. Creative queer started early when she started publishing comments about her High School Life while still attending high school. Since then shes published the graphic memoir awkward definition, potential and likewise along with the novel at adam. Her comic anthologies such as stuck in the middle has received multiple challenges due to his explicit language and content in depicting life in middle school. Also here to moderate this powerful panel is jason low, publisher and coowner of lee and low books, the largest multicultural Childrens Book publisher in the united states. Please join me in welcoming these wonderful voices to the strand. [applause] okay, here we go. All right. First i want to thank them for having us out here to talk about these important issues, especially in light of whats going on nowadays everywhere but i want to start off by sort of informing you about the American Library associations office of intellectual freedom and what they do is they keep track of the banned books, challenges and things like that and they have deemed that basically more than half of all challenged books are diverse books. And so when i say diverse books, the definition of diverse books which was really well put author melinda low who essentially has written a lot of articles on inclusion on the web so you should check those out but she said diverse books have to do with nonwhite characters, lgbt characters, disabled characters and focus on issues of race, religion and nonwestern settings. So what ive just defined for you is essentially all of the books that lee and low publishes as well as all the books that these authors have published as well. Lets start with some questions. David, we will start off with you. Lets talk about the cover of two boys kissing. It should be right behind me. The image is a literal interpretation of what the book is about. And at 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 youwere trying to me with the cover . Also, were you prepared for the pushback it would receive in terms of challenges . The book is about many things but the central identity is about, based on a true story of two boys who break the guinness book of World Records or worlds longest continuous kiss. A kiss for over 35 hours and they dont have much of an argument because theyre kissing the whole time so there are other boys around them who also have storylines. The book was always titled two boys kissing so it was pretty much not guaranteed but pretty much guaranteed that we would show two boys kissing on the cover and that is exactly what random house did with the photo by, actually a High School Photographer named evan walsh. Recently, once the book gave themed was called two boys kissing, having the kiss on the cover made it easier for it to be criticized but i think if the book were still called two boys kissing with a black cover we would still have had challenges. The ala and banned books this year had their top 10 list, the top five books all have queer content is definitely a trend that goesbeyond the two boys kissing. So i think that the subdivision is always that we can challenge and identity by challenging the books about that identity. The good news is 95 percent of the time the challenges are unsuccessful and that identity is defended by the communities so i knew very much that piling the book that way or just writing a queer way or both would certainly make it vulnerable to attack and challenge. Both actual and free exhibit which i know we will talk about later. So but the other option is to never talk about it. Or just to ignore that identity completely and that is not in my mind, i think in the minds of the Community Across all sorts of identities, not an option. We cant just pretend kids dont exist cause some people dont want them to exist and the factthat is all the more reason to write about them. When you were growing up did you ever see any books like this . I certainly didnt see any covers like that. But books like this, no. I think we were very much in the infancy of queer ya when i was myself an adult, we certainly had books like annie on my mind which is very, and john hodgmans books and there were some but certainly the seachange did not really happen until the last decade, 15 years or so but once the seachange, it is now about getting as many queer voices out there as possible and we are very much in the throes of that. When you started out we were talking in the back a little bit and you said you started in 19 and published it in college, did it ever occur to you that you could one day do what you are doing now back then . I certainly, the path that it took was not particularly what i would have expected. Its a little bit of a step for me because of the cover of two boys kissing but not really because, maybe the reason people loved it was because it presented all the characters humanity and it wasnt afraid to tell the truth to kids so i think when it came to telling my own truth, it made absolute sense to write why a. So it isnt, if youd asked me at 19 what are you going to be talking, sitting, in this amazing room in the strand, whatever, 25 years later what will you be talking about, this wouldnt have been in my top 10 at the same time it does feel very natural. I was very lucky to be a part of a wave of authors who all individually decided to write about our own identities or identities of people we love because you dont have to be queer to write great queer characters. I happen to be a part of that and was very lucky. So coe, while this panel is about banned books, theres a process known as soft censorship. To define that, soft censorship is sort of like banning books on the download. What is is this soft censorship is really, its about when books are deemed inappropriate by an educator like a librarian, teacher or principal before an actual challenge actually occurs. So which is, means that this book never gets near a Library Shelf or a classroom. To talk about what you write about, you live in the bronx and the characters and settings you to pick your books reflect your background. So tyrell which is a book that you see right behind me. If you could tell us a little bit about that book, and then maybe tell us what your reaction would be to a Suburban School librarian or teacher who comes from a predominantly white student body and next say she were to say to you that your books or my students could never relate to the books that you write about. Ive had that specific thing actually said to me. I think i was in illinois and a teacher came up to me and said, she literally said this. She goes we only have two ethnic students in our school and i dont know what that means. I think other students were totally devoid of ethnicity. They. They were nonethnic. And shes like why would it be important to have your book in our school. And it was like, really . Youre only going toteach them books about things they already know . Youre not going to teach them anything else. Forget about that for a second. A little bit about my book, tyrell. Its the story of a 15yearold boy inthe bronx and its about a week in his life. He and his mom and little brother are homeless and his dad is locked up and its him trying to figure out a way to get his family out of the shelter they are inwhich is really disgusting and gross. And its written in photo book slang of the bronx slang and it does have occurs words, god for bid. Kids have never heard that. And so i forgot what the question was. False censorship, i think i get more censorship and actual censorship in thought. Its that whole thing of well, its not going to, our students wont relate to this, this is for innercity kids, this is not for us. Or they have it in the library or in the School Library and they literally trot that book out every february for black History Month and is never available, its behind the glass case in a display, you can check it out, its part of the artwork. And then december, february 29 they put that book away and its never, its just not available. Or another thing that i get a lot with my books is that it is in the library but its never shelved with the other books. Its like segregated to a shelf in the back of the library thats called Something Like urban literature or street literature and i saw a Toni Morrison on that book shelf, im not joking. So its in the back and its kind of like we hadbut we dont really have it because its not mixed in with all the other books. So yes, thats, thats where my books are. Its very frustrating. Its i never see my books mixed in on the shelf its like beach reads or love stories or whatever. Its like, we have love. Tyrell falls in love. So its like, its just so frustrating that its so segregated and so removed from people kind of stumbling upon it and finding it by accident almost. And checking it out. What theyre talking about really is, its the segregation you were saying that its kind of hidden away. Really, that cuts down on the discoverability of the book itself, that no ones going to really be able to take this book up because its not really able to reach it. You would have to be looking for this book to find it. Have you had people who werent black to read this book and related to themselves . Thats what were getting at here. Of course. Yes, i get a lot of letters from kids, all kind of kids who tell me they related to it and most of it is because theyre thinking of the story is actually about not just with about necessarily, they say i have trouble with my mom to or my dad not around or they can relate to it on Different Levels than just being a black kid from the block bronx and i think kids are able to do that one adult thing they are. What you think adults are afraid of . I really cant tell you. I think its like theyre letting in to their home or their Community Something thats other, thats a little scary. They feel like its this inner city. I dont know. I want my kid to know about that. Meanwhile all the kids are in hiphop, and they know exactly what it is but its so fear, its like so removed to the suburbs for a reason and if you dont want that book around our kid. Its like its, theyre not thinking thats a story about a little boy who was trying to help his family. Theyre just being sort of the setting and maybe the language he used and they find it offputting even without reading it. Just looking at the cover. And thats a thing, your book is not just about black experiences, but it sounds like theres socioeconomic things happening. Theres these singleparent, theres a whole host of things crossover. Is also to say that its okay if it is about the black experience. Theyll still read it anyway. They dont want to teach things that the students cant relate to already and as i was growing up, i had an entire lee black and Latino Community and we read that fee, catcher in the ride. Nobody looked at us and said those kids wont relate to that. We read those books so why isnt it the other way around . Like a community or with the two ethnic kids, why cant they read something thats just as foreign to them as the great gatsby was for my neighborhood . Why not . Arielle, i havent forgotten about you over here. Quality stuck in the middle has been defended a number of times. So challenge usually entails that a parent wants a book removed from the library from recommended reading lists. Or from required reading. So tell us a bit about the anthology. And some of the larger implications related to book challenges. Also tell us how you successfully defend a book. I think for stuck in the middle, its like you said an anthology of comics about middle school. By 17 cartoonists i love and its really tame. I mean, like i have written also about my high school experiences, those are not tame. Those books are explicit, theres a lot of sex, naked teenagers. Because of those books are published for adults, i mean teenagers can read them but because theyre not specifically why a, theyve never been challenged. Duck in the middle however is marketed as a y a book. So it has come under this kind of scrutiny. But theres really nothing that bad in it. I think the word. [bleep] use, we dont even have the word f you ck. Theres maybe a reference to teenagers painting about engaging in sex. And theres, i think theres a panel of a teenager smoking. So its really not that bad but i think that because its a comic book, this is why its come under these challenges. And thats sort of what the issue is, that the parents sort of opens it up and they see the word based, not like its all printed, they might not find in a prose book but they see it written in big cartoony letters, its noticeable. Ac you know, teenagers talking about sex in these big speech balloons that are more noticeable so its sort of, if they open a comic book and immediately say that bad, i dont like that whereas with a prose book they could actually read it to find what they dont like and most parents dont end up doing that so i think their kids home this tonic, they open it up to one page, see something they dont like and decide that it needs to go. So thats what i think is happening with stuck in the middle. Its being targeted for being a comic, not specifically for its content, i would say. In terms of successfully defending it, weve always had the comic Book Legal Defense Fund come to its defense which is amazing because theyspecialize in comics being unfairly targeted. Because images can be consideredpornographic in a way that prose cant. So the people there have always been great and jumped to the defense of the book. I dont, its been challenged in many school efforts, i dont know what the result of all of them have been but i think theyve managed to keep it on the shelf. Has there ever been a reader, activism happening, people speaking on behalf of your book, things like that . People who feel that passionately about it, its so not a big deal. I feel like people are going to defend something, they want to defend something thats worth defending and not just use of the word pitch in a short comic. So people definitely have, but its not been, it hasnt been the sort of thing where people are, i want to fight for the useof the word. [bleep] in a comic. Because the book, weve been talking about diverse books