Annastasia Williams, manager of The Bottom in Knoxville, was seven when she first encountered banned books. She didn’t know at the time that The Giver by Lois Lowry, the book that helped her understand why “pain makes the world more beautiful,” was on banned lists across the country. Reading the book with her mother sparked “such rich conversation,” she says; now, Williams worries that children will lose access to these life-changing narratives, creating obstacles to self-discovery.
In recent years, book bans and challenges have reached unprecedented levels, intensifying the battle for freedom of expression. This year’s Banned Books Week theme, chosen by the American Library Association, is “Freed Between the Lines,” and aims to highlight the crucial role literature plays in preserving rights and resisting censorship.
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom reported a staggering 65% increase in targeted titles from 2022 to 2023, with 4,240 unique book titles challenged last year alone. Nearly half of these titles represent the experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals, further complicating efforts for readers to connect with these essential and diverse narratives.
Protecting literature isn’t just about preserving books; it’s about safeguarding the freedom to explore diverse perspectives. The continuous surge in censorship stifles the rich tapestry of lived experiences and insights these stories offer. Through Banned Books Week, readers and advocates reaffirm their commitment to preserving fundamental freedoms.
To understand how independent bookstores are protecting banned and challenged titles, Teen Vogue spoke with independent bookstore founders, owners, and employees. Each highlighted their efforts to combat censorship and educate their communities — and shared their favorite banned books that everyone should read.
Enkeshi El-Amin and Annastasia Williams, The Bottom in Knoxville, TN
The Bottom’s Banned Book Recs: The Rabbit’s Wedding by Garth Williams, The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson, New Kid by Jerry Craft, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, Pet by Akwaeke Emezi, Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson, The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
The Bottom, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, is both a Black-affirming bookstore and a nonprofit community hub dedicated to nurturing the creativity of Knoxville’s Black community.
“The Bottom was designed to respond to [book bans],” says founding director Enkeshi El-Amin, whose introduction to banned books came when she was in graduate school, studying with Dr. Joan Bryant, who specialized in Black book history. Annastasia Williams, the store’s manager, and El-Amin say book bans and challenges undermine individuals’ access to the language and narratives essential for self-discovery and understanding the world.
“It greatly impacts … our young people, who are in our school systems and using literature to learn or find their way through the world,” Williams says. “And when we remove access from that group, it greatly impacts how they see themselves, how they see the world. It removes agency.”
El-Amin adds, “I think that finding language to understand ourselves and to understand our world is such a powerful experience, and so to deny people that access — and this is an experience that I know from my own life — that power, that agency, that understanding of self, and society, I think it's really an unjust thing to do.”
Now, as a teacher herself, El-Amin hopes to bring this same awareness of banned books to her own students. “We looked at books and literature as a way to open certain conversations,” she says. These conversations extend beyond just book selling. The Bottom hosts panels and discussions about literature censorship, traveling to industry conferences and nearby festivals like Bonnaroo. “I think education is always going to be at the forefront because it never fails that there's always someone that says, ‘I didn't know,’” Williams says. The Bottom also makes books available monthly to kids in their community, promoting agency and self-discovery.
“The Bottom, in many ways, was a way to create space for black folks to take up space,” El-Amin says. Williams notes that Black literature is about 5-6% of the publishing industry. “So, black literature makes up about 5-6% of the publishing industry. In our bookstore, we are Black affirming, and 99% of the titles that you see in our space are by Black authors,” Williams adds. “I think of myself as kind of a champion for Black literature, especially for banned books because they're so important.”
Charley Rejsek, CEO of Book People in Austin, Texas
Book People’s Banned Books Recs: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, illustrated by Henry Cole, All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson, This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
Book People, Texas' largest independent bookstore, doubles as a beacon of resistance against censorship. Situated in one of the most restricted states, which saw 1,470 challenged titles in 2023, the store and its employees champion the freedom to read and access to diverse narratives. For Charley Rejsek, banned books means: “lack of access for all.”
“What history tells us is that once books are attacked or banned, that's the beginning of other restrictions to information,” Rejsek says. “I think it's very important that we highlight what banned books are so that people can understand what is happening in the world right now and that their access to educational materials is under attack. Banned Books Week is the time to explain to people that you have access now, but you may not have access tomorrow if you don't pay attention to what's happening today.”
Rejsek doesn’t just engage with banned books as a seller but now as a political advocate, too. “I'm a bookseller, and I never thought I'd get into the politics game because that's not really what booksellers do, right?” she says. But when Texas introduced House Bill 900, requiring all book vendors to read and rate books that were previously sold to public school districts for sexual content, she felt she had no other choice.
“I reached out to my trade organization. They put together a coalition. I became a plaintiff, and we sued the state of Texas,” says Rejsek, who ensures her customers are well informed about the lawsuit through the store’s website and mailing list. “I look at it as I'm serving the community by fighting this for them.” To combat attempts of censorship, Rejsek recommends people sign up for their local bookstore’s newsletter, engage with local library organizations, and understand how to navigate and advocate to your state capitol.
"I literally cannot imagine running a bookstore that cannot work with public schools, because that's what happens if I don't take their ratings on board state censorship,” she says. “We are banned from working with public schools."
Raquel Espasande, Book Buyer and Part Owner of Bluestockings Cooperative in New York City
Bluestockings’ Banned Book Recs: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource by and for Transgender Communities by Laura Erickson-Schroth, How to Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual by Rebecca Burgess, Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love, Yes! No! A First Conversation About Consent by Jessica Ralli and Megan Madison, We Do This Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba, Books through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement by Dave Mac Marquis and Moira Marquis
Bluestockings Cooperative, located in New York City, is an activist center, community space, and bookstore that offers literature and resources centered around oppression, intersectionality, community organizing, and activism. For Raquel Espasande, banned books highlight an “obvious” power structure in which schools control what children can read and city council boards control what library visitors can read.
“The people who are in power who are interested in banning books are generally interested in banning books that threaten their power,” Espasande says. “Especially when those books seem mundane, you should read them to find out what they find so threatening about them. At the core of banning books, it's about disempowering people. So empower yourself.”
As a book buyer, Espasande curates the store’s selection, which allows them to promote literature for self-discovery. “I am happiest when a customer comes in and comes up to me and marvels about how many books they've never heard of before that they see in the shop, especially if there are books that they relate to,” Espasande says. “I've had people come up and be like, ‘I didn't even know there were this many books about being trans.’ There are so many people I've talked to who didn't realize what being non-binary is or the fact that it was an option and then upon hearing about it, were like, ‘oh, that's what I am.’”
Bluestockings carries titles in categories that often don’t exist in other bookstores and libraries: police abolition, sex work, trans studies, queer fiction, Diaspora fiction.
“It really does play a role in what people think is possible in the world,” Espasande, who aims to provide a breadth of information to customers, says. “There's sort of an idea that we all have access to the same amounts of information and the same sources. But that's not true. Minors have a lot filtered through their family and very few opportunities outside of that. And now those few safe opportunities in school libraries and public libraries are being targeted.”
Alsace Walentine, Founder and Co-Owner of Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida
Tombolo Books’ Banned Book Recs: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Tombolo Books, located in St. Petersburg, Florida, is at the heart of the state that saw the most intense pushback against literature in 2023, with 2,672 titles challenged. For founder Alsace Walentine, book bans are a tool for those in power to control the circulation of ideas and narratives, reflecting their fears of change and mass empowerment.
“Why would this book be banned? Why are any books being banned in the United States?” Walentine hopes customers will ask. She’s set out to create a bookstore community where curiosity thrives and questions about free speech are met without judgment. “Our role is being a place where people can safely come and say, ‘I don't understand this,’ or even ‘I think book banning is a good idea, why don't you?’” she says. “It's a place to have a conversation. It's a place to get education. And we try to be very, very welcoming at our store so that people feel comfortable being a little vulnerable and saying, ‘I don't understand this.’”
Supplying books in the state with the most challenged titles has made Walentine all too familiar with mass censorship efforts. “People just email these long lists to the school board, and then the books get pulled to be reviewed, books they [often] haven’t read,” she says. “We [Florida’s schools] have people with masters degrees very carefully picking out what belongs in a certain age group. It makes no sense for people who are not educated at all about child development to decide what others should be reading, and to decide that these librarians and teachers who have been educated don't count, and that their careers don't have a purpose, and that they can just come in and say, ‘take all these off the shelf.’”
Amidst these threats to literary freedom in Florida, Walentine remains a champion for banned books. “It's important to read banned books to keep the banned books in circulation,” she says. “It's important to read banned books because there are ideas within that someone feels threatened about you knowing.”
