Right to Read Celebration featuring the Toni Morrison Award for Courage

The Right to Read celebration, which will be live and livestreamed, will feature authors who are currently banned or who have been banned in the recent past; fellow writers who have taken up the cause; and teachers, librarians, and students who have been directly impacted by the book bans that are sweeping America (4,240 unique titles were challenged last year, an increase of almost 65% over 2022).

As part of the evening, we will feature book readings and conversations with a group of banned writers including Lauren Groff, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ellen Hopkins, George M. Johnson, Ashley Hope Perez, Jodi Picoult, and Jacqueline Woodson, with more to come.

For our grand finale, we want to go a step further by recognizing five extraordinary folks—authors, librarians, teachers, activists, and others—who have taken action with a Toni Morrison Courage Award—named after one of the most profound and courageous authors of our time.

This event is part of the national Teach Truth Day of Action.

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Host or Publisher The New Republic