On Wednesday, October 4, PEN America announced the author-led campaign to open the new center by the end of the year to “host public events, wage campaigns, and empower Florida citizens to defend their basic freedoms.”
Notable contributors include children’s book author Judy Blume, novelist Jodi Picoult, screenwriter Gillian Flynn, pop-thriller novelist James Patterson, and Hunger Games creator Suzanne Collins. Also contributing are award-winning author Nikki Grimes, civil-rights activist and author Ruby Bridges, and poet Amanda Gorman, all of whom have had their works removed or banned from libraries at some point.
Crime fiction writer Michael Connelly, who has sold more than 85 million copies worldwide, pledged $1 million to the organization to combat book bans in Florida.
“What PEN America is doing in Florida is very important to us and our neighbors,” Connelly said in a press release. “We have been astonished to see books ripped off the shelves and students forced into the middle of a fight they didn’t ask for or deserve. All of us, especially those of us who make our living in the literary world, are called upon to defend against book bans and legislation that suppresses new voices.”
Mitchell Kaplan, owner of beloved indie bookstore Books & Books, has been on the front lines of the local fight against bans.
“Our governor has been turning Florida into a place that I don’t recognize anymore. They are trying as best they can to have a chilling effect on the freedom to read,” Kaplan tells New Times.
“And obviously, as a person whose life is in books, and the dissemination of ideas, and the empathetic benefits of reading, I think it goes a long way to harming our civic discourse, to the point that it puts our democracy at risk as well.”
As evidence, Kaplan cites the widespread banning efforts undertaken by Moms for Liberty, an outfit the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a hate group.
“But the good news,” the bookseller adds, “is that there’s a resistance being formed. In Miami, because of the banning of Amanda Gordon’s book and two other books dealing with black history, we’ve been doing all kinds of work now that started from a gathering we had about three months ago. And it continues. There are groups being formed like Families Against Banned Books, there is the group Moms for Libros. There’s the Florida Freedom to Read Project. There is a resistance.”
Still, according to PEN America’s most recent book ban report, Florida leads the United States in removing books from public school libraries, with more than 40 percent of the nation’s book bans occurring in the Sunshine State. The “Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor” report noted more than 1,400 school bans took place in Florida during the 2022-2023 academic year. Texas — the previous book ban leader among U.S. states — had the second-most with 625 incidents. Missouri and Utah followed with 333 and 281, respectively. Nationwide, PEN America has documented nearly 6,000 book-banning incidents since beginning its count in 2021.
News of plans for a Miami center comes amid Banned Books Week, which this year runs October 1-7. Coral Gables Congregational Church and Books & Books are serving as the South Florida headquarters for the national effort led by the American Library Association, American Booksellers for Free Expression, and other groups.
