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Samantha Clark, David Bowles, Evan Griffith, Cory Putman Oakes and Liz Garton Scanlon are on the leadership team for the Texas Chapter of Authors Against Book Bans, helping to ignite and organize authors’ voices around the freedom to read. I recently reached out to them to learn more about the organization and their ongoing efforts championing book access.
For those who don’t know, what is Authors Against Book Bans?
Samantha: For too long, authors whose books were banned dealt with those challenges on their own. Authors Against Book Bans came together as a way to provide support for those authors, but also for the educators and children most affected by the bans. In practical terms, we have organized ourselves – state-by-state and nationwide – to show up at school board meetings, to speak up for books and young readers. More philosophically, we aim to represent an industry-wide, united resistance to book banning, and to show unified support for the freedom to read that is so important to us all.
There are lots of demands on an author’s/illustrator’s time. Why did you decide to get involved in this effort?
Liz: Book banning gets at the very heart of who we are and what we do, as authors and as humans. It threatens young readers’ access to life-affirming and life-saving stories and information, it undermines empathy and connection, it flies in the face of some of most dearly held values. To me, there’s no reason to write books if we’re not willing to defend them, and there’s no reason to write books for kids if we’re not going to speak up on their behalf at every turn.
Samantha: Book banning is bad for authors, but more importantly, it’s terrible for young readers and for the trajectory of our society. The people who are calling for the banning of books are not just trying to censor ideas, but also erase LGBTQ+ people and white-wash over histories that we should be learning from. We can’t leave these segments of our communities to endure this hate. I’ve also been trying to encourage the idea of “Share Books, Not Hate” and even made designs into T-shirts and stickers that are available on my RedBubble store.
David: Because of the work I’ve done as a co-founder of #DignidadLiteraria and as the president of the Texas Institute of Letters, I know the importance to other less privileged writers—whose identities or life challenges make fighting back a deleterious task—of seeing those of us who can stand up against oppression on their behalf. And I was brought up by my community to use my privilege as a shield, so I can hardly keep quiet now.
Have any of your own books been banned or challenged? Or have you faced another form of book-related censorship?
David: They Call Her Fregona (Kokila, 2022) and My Two Border Towns [illustrated by Erika Meza, (Kokila, 2022)] have both been banned because of their positive portrayal of asylum seekers and their advocacy for compassion toward refugees. A Staten Island elementary school made headlines by throwing dozens of copies of My Two Border Towns into a dumpster. On the cover of one was a note insisting there is not enough room in the US for these immigrants.
Liz: Believe it or not, All the World (Beach Lane, 2009), my picture book with Marla Frazee, was challenged by a school board in Pennsylvania several years ago, for unspecified reasons that felt patently obvious (and patently bigoted) to us. It’s literally a book about connection — about all the little and large things that we have in common, the things that we love in common! It’s called All the World. They have no shame.
Evan: While I haven’t experienced bans directly, I have had school visits in Florida canceled because of fear that the friendship between two boys in my novel Manatee Summer (Quill Tree, 2022) might be “misinterpreted.” The organization that arranged—then canceled—the visits cited starred trade reviews that praised the portrayal of a sensitive, tender friendship between two eleven-year-old boys. This, evidently, crossed a line (?!). This was so disappointing, particularly considering that the organization and the schools are all based in my home county, which inspired the setting of Manatee Summer.
With the rising number of book bans nationwide, what gives you hope and encourages you to keep going?
Cory: What gives me hope is that the majority of Americans (up to ⅔, depending on what study you cite) oppose book bans. This means there are just a small, disproportionately-represented few driving these bans. The problem is that they are well-organized, vocal, and very good at boots-on-the-ground organization (such as, showing up to school board meetings and putting pressure on school administrators). Their arguments for why various books should be banned are usually nonsensical and baseless – but that doesn’t matter if they’re the only ones in the room with the decision makers. Our challenge as an organization is to encourage more people to speak up, to be in those rooms, to ensure that the book banners are not the only ones speaking for our communities.
David: The fact that many of our communities are pushing back against the special interest groups behind the majority of these bans, along with the coalition of publishers and prominent authors who are using their money to mount legal challenges and civil suits against local and state governments that involve themselves in book-banning — all of that is encouraging.
Banned Books Week is coming up Sept. 22-28. What events are you planning for that week?
Cory: The Austin-based folks from our Texas chapter are hosting a voter registration drive on Monday, September 23 at Book People (from 9:00am to 5:00pm). The event will be non-partisan and obviously we’ll register anybody who turns up. But given that we know the majority of Americans are on our side about this, it’s to our benefit to register as many people as possible to vote! We’ll have local authors volunteering at the drive, as well as a Volunteer Deputy Registrar on site for the entire day. Need to register to vote? Come see us! Not sure if you’re registered to vote? Come see us! (We’ll help you look it up!) Remember the deadline to register to vote in Texas is October 7 (for the November 5, 2024 election).
Evan: And on the evening of September 23, after the voter registration drive, there will be a panel discussion at BookPeople featuring the team behind The Beautiful and Banned podcast. I’ll be joining on behalf of AABB to share what we’ve been up to and the kind of support we can offer to educators and communities in this fight. If you’re in the ATX area, come on out!
You’re from the Texas chapter, but I noticed the AABB map also includes Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana in the chapter. Does that mean they’d like to have authors from those other states do what you’re doing? How can other authors get involved?
Samantha: AABB is less than a year old, and some states are building up more slowly. Texas is already well-represented, but Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana are still relatively small, so AABB headquarters asked us to band together to support each other’s growth.
The goal is that, eventually, each state will have a vibrant chapter running on its own. We’re encouraging All book creatives to join, whether they can volunteer or not; large numbers boost AABB’s leverage with publishers and others in the industry. Also, AABB is not just for authors, but for anyone who has their name on a book, including illustrators, narrators, and translators, whether those books are published traditionally or self-published. Book creatives can join on the AABB website.
At Cynsations, we never miss an opportunity to talk about books and writing. What’s your most recent title and what did you learn while writing/editing or marketing it?
Liz: Bibsy Cross and the Bad Apple [illustrated by Dung Ho, (Knopf, 2024)] and Bibsy Cross and the Bike-a-Thon [illustrated by Dung Ho, (Knopf, 2024)] are the first two titles in my new chapter book series and they came out in June. I’ve never written a chapter book series before so my learning curve was long and steep. My poor editor! But I love writing for this audience of newly independent and empowered readers.
Evan: My second middle-grade novel, The Strange Wonders of Roots (Quill Tree, 2024), released this past May. It’s the first book that I sold on proposal. I learned that drafting with a contract already in place–and a looming deadline–is… inspiring! Invigorating! Scary in a sort of fun way!
Samantha: The Gemstone Dragons chapter books series (Bloomsbury, 2022) is my first series and they are my first books for younger kids. They were a blast to write. I just got an email from a young fan (transcribed by her mom) saying her favorite game is to pretend to be one of my dragons. That is what writing kidlit is all about!
Cory: My most recent book is a middle grade, The Second Best Haunted Hotel on Mercer Street (Amulet, 2020). This book, more than any other, taught me to trust the process and go with the writing flow. Every book is different and you never really know what writing any particular one is going to be like until you’re in the thick of it.
David: My latest books are my YA romantasy collaboration with Guadalupe García McCall, Hearts of Fire and Snow (Bloomsbury, 2024) (a re-imagining and sequel to the legend of the two volcanoes near Mexico City) and (coming October 29) the MG graphic novel The Hero Twins and the Magic of Song, illustrated by Charlene Bowles (Lee & Low, 2024), which retells a fun-filled adventure from the Popul Vuh.
Cynsational Notes
Samantha M Clark is the award-winning author of The Boy, The Boat, And The Beast and Arrow (both published by Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster) and American Horse Tales: Hollywood (Penguin Workshop/Penguin Random House), as well as the Gemstone Dragons chapter book series (Bloomsbury). She lives with her husband and two funny dogs in Austin, Texas, and helps other writers through her Your Writing Mentor newsletter. Sign up for news and giveaways at www.SamanthaMClark.com. Follow her on BlueSky @samanthamclark, Twitter @samclarkwrites, Instagram @samanthamclarkbooks, Facebook at SamanthaMClarkAuthor, and Pinterest at SamClarkWrites.
David Bowles is a Mexican American author and translator from south Texas, where he works as an associate professor, coordinating the English Education Program at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. Among his three dozens books are the multiple-award-winning They Call Me Güero and its companion They Call Her Fregona (Kokila), as well as My Two Border Towns (Kokila), Ancient Night (Levine Querido), Secret of the Moon Conch (Bloomsbury) and The Prince & the Coyote (Levine Querido).
His work has also been published in multiple anthologies, plus venues such as The New York Times, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, School Library Journal, Rattle, Translation Review, and the Journal of Children’s Literature. Additionally, David has worked on several TV/film projects, including Victor and Valentino (Cartoon Network), the Moctezuma & Cortés miniseries (Amazon/Amblin) and Monsters and Mysteries in America (Discovery).
In 2017, David was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. Beginning in April of 2024, David serves as its president. In 2019, he co-founded the hashtag and activist movement #DignidadLiteraria, which has negotiated greater Latinx representation in publishing. In 2021, he helped launch Chispa, the Latinx imprint of Scout Comics, for which he serves as editor-in-chief.
Evan Griffith is the author of the middle-grade novels Manatee Summer and The Strange Wonders of Roots (both Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections) and the picture book biographies Secrets of the Sea: The Story of Jeanne Power, Revolutionary Marine Scientist and Wild at Heart: The Story of Olaus and Mardy Murie, Defenders of Nature. His books have received multiple starred reviews and been recognized as Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, National Science Teachers Association Best Stem Books, and Chicago Public Library’s Best Informational Books for Younger Readers.
Evan studied creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his MFA in Writing for Children at the Vermont College of Fine Arts where he now serves as faculty. He worked for several years as an editor at Workman Publishing in New York City, where he specialized in non-fiction for children and adults, and he continues to take on select editorial projects. He often teaches online writing classes and enjoys mentoring writers of all ages.
Cory Putman Oakes is an award-winning children’s book author and educator from Austin, Texas. She’s the author of three middle grade novels, The Second Best Haunted Hotel on Mercer Street., Dinosaur Boy, and Dinosaur Boy Saves Mars, and two young adult novels, Witchtown and The Veil. Cory is an ex-lawyer and a current middle school English teacher. When she’s not writing or teaching, she enjoys baking and hanging out with her family.
Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of numerous beloved books for young people, including picture books Frances in the Country; Kate, Who Tamed the Wind; One Dark Bird; the Caldecott honored All the World, and many others, illustrated by some of the very best artists in the business. She’s also co-authored several books with her pal Audrey Vernick, including the hilarious Bob, Not Bob, and the upcoming World’s Best Class Plant. Scanlon’s middle grade novels are The Great Good Summer and Lolo’s Light, and her chapter book series Bibsy Cross debuts in 2024.
Gayleen Rabakukk holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and two regional interest books for adults. She is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
She serves as board member for Lago Vista’s Friends of the Library and also leads a book club for young readers at the library. She’s active in Austin SCBWI and has taught creative writing workshops for the Austin Public Library Foundation. She loves inspiring curiosity in young readers through stories of hope and adventure. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.