Book Bans – PEN America

October 6, 2026

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Book Bans

PEN America tracks book bans and fights censorship in public schools and libraries across the country.

A grayscale collage depicts library bookshelves and hands holding an open book, with colorful spines partially obscured by yellow and black caution tape that hints at book bans. Red shapes accent the background, creating a striking contrast.

Nearly 12,000 Book bans in one school year

Our newest book ban report found nearly 12,000 instances of book bans in public schools nationwide during the 2025-2026 school year—the largest number in a single year.

Banned book list 2026

PEN America has documented nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021, a number without precedent. Learn more about the dangerous mix of activist groups and vague legislation has led to this wave of censorship in our latest report.

A collection of various books spread out on a wooden surface. Titles include The Bluest Eye, The Kite Runner, Beloved, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, among others. The books cover diverse genres and themes.

NONFICTION BOOK BANS DRAMATICALLY INCREASE: WHY?

PEN America’s Spring 2026 research documents a doubling of censorship of nonfiction on subjects from history and health to general knowledge, including biographies and memoirs. The targeting of titles about real events or people underscores “an embrace of anti-intellectualism” within the book banning movement, according to the new report Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans.

A stack of partially obscured books lines the left edge, with text on a white, lined background reading: Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans in bold black letters.

2025 RESEARCH REVEALS STAGGERING, CUMULATIVE TOLL OF BOOK BANS NATIONWIDE

Books are under profound attack in the United States. Our latest report, Banned in the USA: The Normalization of Book Banning, found that 6,870 books bans were enacted during the 2024-25 school year, across 23 states and 87 public school districts. And everywhere, it is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted. Books by authors of color, by LGBTQ+ authors, by women. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, history. PEN America pushes back against censorship and the intolerance and exclusion that undergird it.

Stacks of colorful books are shown in front of a chalkboard with text reading, “22,810 instances of books banned in U.S. public schools, 2021–2025.”.

PEN America is Suing Against Book Bans in Tennessee

In April 2025, PEN America joined three students and their parents as plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against the Rutherford County Board of Education, challenging book removals and restrictions that violate the First Amendment rights of students to receive information and of authors to free expression.

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