Ralph Ellison

2013 has seen a drastic rise in requests to ban books - especially those about race or sexuality - from schools. The Kids' Right to Read Project (KRRP), which is part of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), says that, in the past year, it has investigated 49 book bannings or removals of books from shelves in 29 states, a 53 percent increase from the year before.

Authors Karen Russell and Donald Antrim are among announced Wednesday morning (though the news leaked on Tuesday evening). The $625,000 grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation are awarded annually, with no strings attached, to "talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction." The foundation that Antrim's "fiction and nonfiction are marked by a contrast between elegant, concise language and the disorienting chaos in which his characters find themselves. 

It’s Banned Book Week. Libraries and book stores have celebrated the week by having promotions and educating readers on its history. However, Randolph County School Board in North Carolina voted 5-2 recently to ban ‘Invisible Man’ from school library shelves. Yet, about a week later, the same board voted 6-1 to re-instate Ralph Ellison’s book, [...]

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(Press Release) SEATTLE, July 22, 2010—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that The Wylie Agency is publishing 20 books from some of literature’s most influential authors through its new Odyssey Editions imprint (www.odysseyeditions.com) and making them available for sale exclusively in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore).