STRONGER News - September 2025 - 7 Hopeful News Items for the Freedom to Read
It’s September 2025, and with Banned Books Week (Oct 5-11) on the horizon, we’re changing up this newsletter to share seven things that are happening right now in the fight for the freedom to read.
It’s September 2025, and with Banned Books Week (Oct 5-11) on the horizon, we’re changing up this newsletter to share seven things that are happening right now in the fight for the freedom to read.
1) You’re invited to join us for the We Are Stronger Than Censorship Town Hall for Supporters on Friday Oct 3, 2025 at 10am Pacific! It’s a one-hour online community event where we’ll share the latest on the program, answer your questions, and crowd-source your ideas for scaling up the fight for the freedom to read!
Register here to attend.
2) Lee’s article on “The Three Myths of Book Banning” was published by Technica Editorial, new partners for We Are Stronger Than Censorship. (Lee really wants to do this as a TEDx talk, so if anyone has a lead on that, please
email us here.
3) Cheers again to the team at Technica Editorial, who took this photo at a team event this month in Durham, North Carolina. Note how everyone in the photo is wearing a “Strong Like An Editor” shirt from We Are Stronger Than Censorship. Those 17 shirts represent a combined donation of $272 to the program, allowing us to buy and donate 34 books to offset 17 book challenges!
You can get your own shirt here (“Strong Like a Reader” and “We Are Stronger Than Censorship” are among our many designs.)
4) If you already have your We Are Stronger Than Censorship swag, consider adding another piece to your wardrobe: SCOTUS Book Club merch. (After all, there are 7 days in Banned Books Week’s celebration of the Freedom to Read.)
As the group of children’s book creators explain: “Sarah Brannen, author of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding…has created delightful art of our nine books in the hands of The Nine. And we’ve put it on t-shirts, zip sweatshirts, and hoodies so we can all laugh/smile/cry together, speak out against book banning, and support PEN America!”
5) We Are Stronger Than Censorship warmly welcomes four new partners this month:
Two bookstores:
Woodland Book Nook in Pinedale, Wyoming
The River’s End Bookstore in Oswego, New York
And two publishing industry publications:
BookPage - look for the We Are Stronger Than Censorship ad in the upcoming
November 2025 issue of BookPage at participating libraries and bookstores.
Publishers Weekly - look for the full page ad for We Are Stronger Than Censorship in
PW’s September Freedom to Read Issue.
6) At Lorain (Ohio) Pride in June 2025, LGBTQ Book Love gave away free books,
including those donated by We Are Stronger Than Censorship, to community
members of all ages. Cheers to the team at LGBTQ Book Love and all those lucky
readers!
7) Amid the hard news of another school shooting, kidlit authors Anne Ursu and Karlyn Coleman are finding ways to bring books—and solace—to kids. Ursu is raising money to put Not Like Every Day: Finding Calm During School Lockdown Drills by Stephanie Lucianovic into schools across Minneapolis and Coleman is gathering books requested by students returning to classes at Annunciation. It’s a great reminder that the right book, at the right time, can make a huge impact for good.
Finally, we’d like to welcome all the new librarians and other supporters reading this monthly update for the first time – we appreciate all you do to champion the freedom to read!
Remember that together, WE ARE STRONGER THAN CENSORSHIP!
Stay safe and strong,
Lee and Tasslyn