Telegraph Club is the 4th most banned book in America

Last week, PEN America released its fourth annual report on the state of book banning and censorship in America, and I learned that Last Night at the Telegraph Club was the fourth most banned book in schools during the 2024-25 school year. (This does not count public libraries, where LNATTC has also been banned or restricted.)

For years, organizations such as PEN America and the American Library Association have created these "top 10" lists of banned books in order to raise awareness, and none of my books has ever been on them, even though my books have been widely banned. I honestly never thought one of my books would be on one of these lists. I believe that the reason LNATTC is on this list this year is because all the other usual suspects—like Gender Queer, This Book Is Gay, etc.—have already been banned. They're no longer in schools at all. The sad conclusion, then, is that book bans work. Once books are banned, they don't come back.

That's why having a book on this list is not a real accomplishment. It's not a badge of honor. It doesn't mean I've been "doing something right." It isn't a statement about the literary quality of the book or its popularity. Don't forget: the people who want to ban this book probably haven't even read it. What does it mean? It means that the fascists are winning — for now.

Is this depressing? Yes, undoubtedly. But I hope it's also galvanizing. Let's all take a moment to acknowledge how traumatic these book bans are—for everyone involved, authors to publishers to libraries to readers—and then resolve to collectively fight back. That is the only way we will be able to overcome this onslaught of censorship. Now is not the time to give up; it's the time to remind yourself what your values are and to stand up for them.

I found unexpected inspiration to stay in the fight this morning when I read this (long) interview between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein about the current state of politics and discourse in America. It's in the New York Times so it's behind a paywall, but the most important part for me was this one quote from Coates, who was speaking about what he believes his role is right now:

"All I can go to is my role as a writer, and my role as a writer is to state things as clearly as I possibly can, to make them in such a way that they haunt, to state truths and to reinforce the animating notion of my politics — which is that all humanity is equal and is worthy of that."

What he said rang true for me, too.

In this moment, it's really easy to get dragged down into political infighting, to talk back to people who are wrong on the internet, to feel cynical about how corrupt or inefficient our government or representatives are. But we can't let those temptations distract from what is most important.

For me, when it comes to book bans, the most important thing to remember is that I believe freedom of expression should be a fundamental right for all humans. I believe we all deserve the freedom to share our thoughts and to make the art we are moved to make.

While I have the platform and the ability to say this aloud, I will continue to do so.