Not Enough Time!!!

There is so much going right now and it's the end of the semester so I can't keep up! But here's a rapid rundown of current events:

1) I had the delight of attending Houston Teen Book Con wherein I met amazing librarians, teachers, booksellers, authors and of course readers!! Thank you so much to the organizers and to everyone who came to the panels! I also had the bonus of bringing a friend home; here is Ben the armadillo from Blue Willow Bookshop.He's a fan of WOLFSBANE as you can see...or maybe he's trying to eat it.
2) It's National Library Week!! Libraries are one of society's most vital resources. Support your libraries! Also READ BANNED BOOKS!

3) Tomorrow is Rock the Drop: Operation Teen Book Drop! This amazing event encourages you to drop a teen book in a random public place for a lucky reader to pick up and then pass along. I'll be dropping several books around Minneapolis/St. Paul tomorrow.

4) I'm almost done with my work in progress (the companion novel to the Nightshade series), and I'm in that totally obsessive zone; hence, my lack of blogs. When I come up for air I promise to write more posts and hold more contests!

See you on the other side!

EPIC Contest

Banned Books Weeks is, in my opinion, one of the most important weeks of the year. The suppression of ideas and discussion runs counter to the growth and compassion that human society desperately needs.

Given how pivotal I think this week of anti-censorship awareness is I'm giving away some big prizes. Winners will be randomly drawn at the end of the week and details of how to enter will follow - but first: the prizes! These books constitute challenged and banned books that have had a profound impact on me as both reader and writer.

One winner will receive: The full box set of Harry Potter (the most challenged books of the decade!)

One winner will receive: Ellen Hopkins' Crank, Glass, and Fallout

One winner will receive: Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, Wintergirls, and Twisted

Here's how to enter:

Spread the word about Banned Books Week by mentioned a challenged or banned book you love (you can find lists of challenged books here) and link back to this post (don't worry if you don't have a blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are all fine). Share your link in the comments below. I'll draw the winners on Saturday!

In Which I Am A Fortune Teller

Remember a few days ago, when I posted about censorship in support of Laurie Halse Anderson?

In that post I mentioned a guest post I'd written for Page Turners Blog about book banning and how I expect Nightshade to be challenged at some point.

The past few days I've been in Naperville, Illinois for Anderson's YA conference. I had the best time ever - the Anderson's staff are phenomenal! It was amazing and I'll be posting more about that soon. Prior to the conference, I had the great pleasure and honor to visit local school and talk about writing.

Before my very first presentation, however, I was taken to the principal's office (I'm 32 and that was my first time being sent to the principal's office!) and told that a parent had objected to my being there because of the content of my book.

Now I realize I had very recently written that I expected this to happen, but I have to say, I wasn't prepared for an objection to come on my very first school visit. Being a school visit n00b I was already nervous and getting this news was a bit like a punch in the gut. Fortunately as soon as I got on stage and started talking about how much I love writing, all that ugly noise faded away. The students were phenomenal. They asked fantastic questions and were so enthusiastic. It reminded me of why I love talking to young readers and why no matter who objects I will always continue to SPEAK LOUDLY about the issues I believe in.

It's officially Banned Books Week now and to celebrate I'll be giving away a handful of banned or challenged books by authors who are heroes of mine. Stay tuned!

CONTEST! Questioning Cupid

It's here: Valentine's Day! Run!!
But WAIT there's a CONTEST, so stick around!!

As the Bleeding Hearts Countdown was dedicated to undercutting the value of this holiday, the contest let's you take over - it's your turn to rule the realm of love.

Here's how it works:

As most of you probably know, Twilight brought about the fierce rivalry of Team Edward vs. Team Jacob and I'm sure that Breaking Dawn rendered Camp Jacob despondent. But Twilight isn't the only story with romantic choices at stake.

To enter the contest use the comments to change love story history. What doomed couple would you save, who would ride of with who in the sunset? Nominate your couple that should have been and tell us why their love should have beaten the odds. Couples can be literary, film, television or anything else you come up with.

Winners (chosen at random) will be able to select one of these awesome 2010 debuts:

Josh Berk The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin
Cynthia Jaynes Omololu Dirty Little Secrets
Kristin Walker A Match Made in High School
Suzanne Young The Naughty List

Looking for your wistful what might have beens (ranting and raving also warmly welcomed)!

Banned Books Week Adieu

Thank you for all the wonderful comments and thoughtful responses during my dedicated week of Banned Books Week posts. Thanks especially to Irene Latham for her wonderful guest blog yesterday (go buy her awesome book, Leaving Gee's Bend!)

A few last words on book bans and challenges. If it wasn't already abundantly clear...ahem, I'm against both. I'm taking a page from Carrie Harris who has a lovely BBW post on her blog today. Bans and challenges are about fear and the burden of replacing fear with understanding falls to us - the authors (and to readers, keep reading and talking about why reading widely and deeply is important!)

And because I love any Muppet-like creatures, I'd like to give the last word to the good folks at bannedbooksweek.org

Guest Blogger: Irene Latham

I'm honored to host author, and fellow Tenner, Irene Latham not only for her contribution to my Banned Books Week post, but because her book focuses on a wonderful subject very close to my heart - women's and family history!

Leaving Gee's Bend will be released January 7, 2010 (Putnam), but Irene has already bumped up against a book challenge. She's been gracious enough to share her experience here:

When I set out to write a novel set in the tiny, isolated African American quilt-making community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, I had no idea this was the work that would land me on the list of Authors of Banned Books. I had no idea that my family story, one that celebrates courage and survival and the power of home, would, by a committee at an elementary school, be reduced to one word: “afterbirth.”

As a mother of three sons, I’ve always been frank with my children. We don’t use euphemisms for body parts, we talk about sex and drugs and all the things that make us human, including birth. In fact, one of my kids’ favorite birthday rituals even now, at ages 9, 12 and 15, is pulling out the scrapbook and poring over pictures of me pregnant and those precious first moment of life outside the womb, complete with blood and vernix and umbilical cord. And what is the umbilical cord attached to? Ah, another miracle, the one that has by then served its purpose. And in 1932 Gee’s Bend, Alabama, the thing that was buried in the orange dirt beside the cabin.

The fact that this book was banned in Alabama, when I am an Alabama author and this is an Alabama book, is particularly disappointing. Anytime a group chooses to deny children a meaningful reading experience due to their own fears or discomfort is a tragedy. Especially when it is something as innocuous as “afterbirth,” a word that has nothing to do with sexuality or violence or competing religious beliefs. One might blame it on the “gross” factor, but I still see Walter the Farting Dog and Captain Underpants on the school library shelves. Which is why we need parents, more than ever, to read to their children, to choose stories that reflect the human experience in all its complicated glory.

And just as I was inspired by the brave, unadorned practical beauty of the Gee’s Bend quilts, I hope other readers will pick up LEAVING GEE’S BEND and experience it not as a book that contains the uncomfortable fact of afterbirth, but one that reminds us of the strength and grace that exists in each of us, no matter the year or place on the planet. That even if you are barefooted and don't have a map to guide you and the path is unknown -- go your own way. Create the life you want. And tell your story in whatever way that makes sense to you. Maybe even in a quilt.

Thank you so much for your post, Irene! Can't wait for the book!!

Side Swipes and Collateral Damage

If an an attempted ban doesn't succeed, can it really hurt the book/author?

YES.

To talk about why a challenge can be detrimental, I'm taking a page from Jennifer Hubbard, who has an amazing post on this topic.

Neil Gaiman, my hero (swoon), also weighed in on the same topic yesterday.

Mainly it's about fear and the market. Books are a risky business in the first place and the people in charge of acquiring them (particularly librarians) have ever dwindling resources with which to buy books. If a book seems like it might cause a big kerfuffle then it might run the risk of not being acquired, shelved, or sold in the first place. The question thus becomes not "should I pull this book," but "do I dare even acquire this book in the first place?"

Also hooray for Yvonne at The Organic Writer for another great Banned Books Week post and challenge! How many banned books have you read?

Voice, Silence, History

Last night I had the pleasure of taking a group of students to see Jump at the Sun. A one-woman performance based on the life of Zora Neale Hurston. The piece is part of a Federal Writers' project education outreach program in partnership with the St. Paul Public Libraries and was performed at Central High School in St. Paul by the phenomenal actress, Regina Williams.

While narrating the trials and triumphs of Neale Hurston, it's also the poignant biography of a writer's life. The love, the work, the pain.

Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!

The play's title, Jump at the Sun, comes from something Hurston's mother told her when she was a child.

Jump at the sun, baby
Jump at the sun
You may not land at the sun
But if you jump you'll get off the ground

Jump is the story of a woman who created despite incredible odds - it's about the way life and truth weave into our stories. As she said "in the end, writers always get even."

Hurston's work was panned by many (mostly white and male) literati of her age; even her male peers in the Harlem Renaissance harshly critiqued her work. Despite her extraordinary craft, Hurston died in poverty in 1960 and was buried in an unmarked grave.

I first read Their Eyes Were Watching God in AP English, my senior year of high school (hi Mrs. Heisler!!! Thanks for everything!)

Hearing passages from this book last night brought tears to my eyes, reminding me of her incredible gift for language.

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.

I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.

What I truly loved about this performance was that it was targeted at high school students. They filled the black box theater, enraptured by the skill of the actress and the power of her words, Hurston's words. I hope they all left filled by that same electric buzz that pulsed through my veins - something I experience when I've been touched by humanity at its best. And I hope they all believed more in themselves because of her:

Those that don't got it, can't show it. Those that got it, can't hide it.

And just in case you were wondering - yes, Their Eyes Were Watching God is a banned book.

Speaking Out

Today's Banned Books Week post honors those authors/bloggers who are discussing the ways in which censorship affects their work. In a couple of days we'll hear directly from an author about her first encounter with school challenge to her book.

Ellen Hopkins - Crank took the book world by storm in 2004. Loosely based on her own daughter's addiction to meth and written fully in verse, Crank is beautiful, brutal, and deeply moving.

Ellen has gone on to write five more books, all of which deal with very difficult issues that affect teens. I had the good fortune of meeting Ellen at the San Francisco Writers' Conference last February and she is not only an amazing creative force, she is a kind and empathetic human being. She cares deeply about the lives of teens and has experienced first hand the hardships they face.

And Ellen is facing book challenges because of the risks she's taking in her writing.

Laurie Halse Anderson - Speak, Laurie's first novel and a National Book Award finalist, explores the trauma of rape in the life of an isolated teenage girl. Wintergirls sheds light on the darkness of teenage eating disorders. Because of their content, Laurie's books are also challenged.
Ellen and Laurie are two writers whose work I deeply admire, and their stories are representative of many, many more brave authors whose craft touches many lives and serves as a healing balm for readers who've dealt with the issues these writers examine. An argument made in challenges is frequently that parents should be the ones to address these issues rather than allowing difficult subject material to float freely on public library shelves.

In a perfect world that argument might fly, but many teens are without parents who are willing or able to discuss these topic. And many teens who've faced trauma might not know how to broach such subjects with adults - there may be no adults they trust in their lives. Ellen and Laurie, like other authors who deal with this material, offer safe spaces for teens to ponder and discuss the hardships they and their peers face in this world, their realities that are too frequently painful and frightening.

Thanks to Ellen, Laurie and others for your courage and craft!

I'd also like to give a shout out to fellow writer/blogger Tricia O'Brien at Talespinning who is doing an amazing Banned Books Week series of posts. Today - A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, one of my all time favorite books!

The Kids Are Alright

Since we started Banned Books Week with a discussion of picture books I wanted to continue in the vein of children's lit.

Here's a big shout out to The Kids' Right to Read Project (KRRP). This group is on the front lines of the book banning war and they do amazing things. The best of which is advocating for the validity of children's brains - yes, indeed, kids read, kids think, kids learn!!! Let's help them!

KRRP offers wonderful resources on readers' rights and book censorship. I found this list particularly interesting and thought it would serve as a good segue into this week's posts:

Types of Objections against Books

Profanity. Books are often challenged for the language they contain, even though profanity is often used in literature to convey social or historical context, local dialect or simply to better depict reactions to real-life situations. Books such as Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut have been challenged or banned due to objections to profanity.

Sex. Books as varied as Judy Blume’s Forever, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, among many others, have been challenged by parents and school boards who deem certain sexual passages inappropriate for young people. Works such as It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris and Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman, among others, face demands for removal for their frank discussion and focus on gay/lesbian issues.

Violence. Objections to violent content are often based on the idea that these works trivialize violence or desensitize readers to its effects. Books challenged on these grounds include One Fat Summer by Robert Lypsyte and Native Son by Richard Wright.

Religion. Religious grounds have long been cited as reasons for censoring books. Reading translations of the Bible was once forbidden. Today, parents and ministers often object to works which discuss topics such as sex, evolution, or witchcraft or occult themes.

I guess that means Profanity, Sex, Violence, and Religion are the four horsemen of the book apocalypse.

The Little Books that Could...Despite All Attempts to Smoosh Them

Welcome to Banned Books Week at A Blurred History!

Each day of this week I'll be featuring a banned book (or a few) that shaped my own life and offer my two cents on the whys and wherefores of censorhip.

Today - Picture books!

It's still had for me to wrap my head around the idea that even picture books get banned - but considering that books written for children draw the most fire that makes picture books prime targets.

Two of my favorite banned picture books are:
Sendak's work made the list because of "nudity" in some illustrations. Sex and sexuality receive the most flak in terms of censorship, but even without going into that hornets' nest (don't worry, we'll get there later this week) nudity doesn't have to be about sex except for biological differentiation. We all have bodies and we should be comfortable in them.

Banned for "supernatural content." Witches can never catch a break. Not way back when, not today. I understand the source of anxiety about the occult but I've never been sympathetic to it. Not only because I love fantasy, but also - just as Harry Potter says Voldemort's name without fear - because not speaking about something gives it more power via ignorance and fear. Witch hunts always end badly, and not just for the witches. Oh wait - Harry Potter got banned too? Oops.

All Tomorrow's Parties

Start your freedom engines folks, it's time for Banned Books Week. Before tomorrow's discussion, I wanted to introduce you to this list:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
   Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
   Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8. Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
   Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
    Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

What do the above titles have in common? They are the most challenged books of 2008! And while they made the top 10 list, 513 books were challenged last year. At the end of this week we'll hear from a 2009 author whose book has already been challenged and how she's handled objections to her work.

Will you be on next year's list?

On Your Marks

Too many books have been slandered, maligned, and pulled from library shelves. Some aren't well known, others are infamous. As we head into Banned Books Week I wanted to do a little warm up for the discussions ahead. So here are the top ten banned books:

1. Candide
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
3. Brave New World
4. Nineteen Eighty-Four
5. The Catcher in the Rye
6. Lolita
7. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
8. The Anarchist Cookbook
9. The Satanic Verses
10. Harry Potter Series

Surprised? Already familiar with this list? Is there anything you see that brings these texts together? What makes a book "bannable"?

Anticipation

September 26 marks the beginning of Banned Books Week - to raise awareness, each of my posts will be devoted to a book that's been censored, and had a profound impact on my life. I'll also be highlighting programs or forums that other writers have created to fuel the discussion about books, censorship, and the rights of readers as well as writers.

I have, as I'd imagine most writers do, very strong opinions about book banning. In my posts I'll try to favor reflection and thoughtful response over rants, because the banning of literature, especially children's literature, is a social problem that affects our community at large. To change attitudes our conversations must reach out and educate, rather than engage in a vengeful mudslinging. These are debates all writers should be deeply invested in and the way we present our arguments reflects how committed we are to opening the minds of others.

So before we jump in on this blog, I'd suggest you visit Laurie Halse Anderson's post about how to prepare for Banned Books Week. Our voices do make a difference, and it's time they're raised!