Letter from Board President Tegan Tigani

Dear Fellow Booksellers,

Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, and some of us wear our hearts on our tees. I just received my new Liberate Banned Books Week T-shirt supporting ABA’s American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE), and it’s going to feature heavily in my wardrobe rotation. I chose the Literate/Liberate design on the front with the “If we set books free, books can set us free” message on the back.

The designs celebrate Banned Books Week (September 22–28, 2024), but the message and fundraising are crucial now: book bans have been impacting communities around the country, and ABA has been working hard to fight back.

The ABA staff has been doing incredible work. In the interest of clarity, I want to point out that this letter focuses a lot on the “means” of our organization, which is the incredible work the ABA staff does, rather than the “ends” that the Board is responsible for. I want to make sure to share this important ABA work because the robustness and impact of the ABA staff’s actions on book bans assures the Board that our Ends Policies, specifically our first end in support of our right to free expression resources, are being interpreted as the Board intended: in ways that support our member stores. 

As I follow the news from ABFE (the Instagram updates are a quick, easy way for me to stay informed, and BookWeb’s Advocacy tag tracks BTW articles), I know that many of my colleagues around the country don’t enjoy the privilege and support I do from their elected officials. Only one candidate on my recent primary ballot addressed book bans in the voter’s pamphlet: Steve Hobbs, incumbent Washington Secretary of State, wrote, “Overseeing Washington’s State Library, I confronted book bans and censorship in public libraries across our state.” The political climate is much more hostile to the right to read in other places. 

In Idaho, because of House Bill 710, a Read-in at the State Capitol was organized in January 2024 thanks to the work of Rediscovered Books. In August, the Authors Against Book Bans mobilized another read-in as a part of their nationwide activism. Utah recently banned 13 books statewide following House Bill 29 going into effect in July. Within the last month, significant book challenges have happened in Arizona, Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and more. ABA continues with lawsuits in Texas and Arkansas, while supporting our allies with their lawsuits in Iowa. You can find resources like the Right to Read Toolkit on the BookWeb Advocacy page and be inspired by ABFE’s interviews with colleagues fighting the good fight. You can also spread the word that The ABA Right to Read Handbook: Fighting Book Bans and Why It Matters is available now for preorder and will be published September 16, 2024, so you can carry it in your store this Banned Books Week. You can also request a digital ARC to check it out before you order.

On August 19, ABA hosted an online informational event about how bookstores can facilitate book donations as a concrete way for stores to be proactive about the freedom to read. The event was hosted in collaboration with Authors Against Book Bans, Red Wine & Blue, the Independent Book Publishers Association, and others. Some of the goals of the session were to help indie bookstores and our customers connect with book access programs who need book donations, to get our customers to buy banned and diverse books for donation, and work with partner organizations to get them into the hands of readers.

As much as we wish to find a silver lining that book bans increase awareness and sales for some titles, unfortunately, the reality is that bans can slow sales and negatively impact publication of books tackling important topics or featuring diverse voices. Cynthia Compton, ABA Board Vice President and owner of 4 Kids Books & Toys in Zionsville, Indiana, and MacArthur Books in Carmel, Indiana, told me about a local school library that removed all its books until they could be reviewed for content. Not only is the existing library in storage, but new books are not being purchased. The same thing has happened in other states, like Texas, where book ban bills have become law. 

Booksellers and librarians have worked together to build carefully-curated collections; booksellers, authors, and illustrators have worked with publishers to demonstrate the need for diverse books and then get them to readers who read them to understand the world and themselves. So many schools are understaffed and underfunded; overworked educators and eager students should not have to face empty shelves because books are boxed due to bigotry and bureaucracy. Librarians and booksellers should not be under threat for giving readers essential life tools.

The T-shirt description on Bonfire highlights book banning’s threat to communities, bookstores, and publishing: “Banned Books Week 2024 is about liberation. Book bans disproportionately target books by authors of color and LGBTQ+ authors, threatening to further silence already marginalized groups. Books can't set us free if we don’t set them free first.” I am so grateful for ABA’s legislative, advocacy, and education work to defend the right to read.

Sincerely, 
Tegan Tigani, ABA Board President and Children’s Book Buyer/Bookseller at Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle, WA