NCAC’s Executive Director, Chris Finan, recently wrote two columns for Publishers Weekly discussing the role of book publishers in combatting censorship. The first article (originally published 5/24/2021) recalls the Freedom to Read Statement, signed in 1953, in which publishers and librarians committed to defending and promoting free expression. The follow-up article (originally published 5/31/2021) looks at how discourse and conversation can be used to work through many of the current debates within book publishers about what authors, books and ideas to publish.
Both columns can be read at Publishers Weekly (column 1 here and column 2 here) or in PDF below.
(Reprinted with permission)