Join Ira Wells, author of On Book Banning, in a Freedom to Read Week conversation with Centre for Free Expression Director James L. Turk, at this time when censorship is becoming popular and pervasive. The event is co-sponsored by Canadian School Libraries, Edmonton Public Library, PEN Canada, Toronto Public Library, Vancouver Public Library.
This free virtual event will take place on Wednesday, February 26 at 7pm EST. Zoom link to event: torontomu.zoom.us/j/91941276567
More details here.
Grab On Book Banning here!
The freedom to read is under attack.
From the destruction of libraries in ancient Rome to today’s state-sponsored efforts to suppress LGBTQ+ literature, book bans arise from the impulse toward social control. In a survey of legal cases, literary controversies, and philosophical arguments, Ira Wells illustrates the historical opposition to the freedom to read and argues that today’s conservatives and progressives alike are warping our children’s relationship with literature and teaching them that the solution to opposing viewpoints is outright expurgation. At a moment in which our democratic institutions are buckling under the stress of polarization, On Book Banning is both rallying cry and guide to resistance for those who will always insist upon reading for themselves.
Ira Wells is a critic, essayist, and an associate professor at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, where he teaches in the Northrop Frye stream in literature and the humanities in the Vic One program. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Globe and Mail, Guardian, The New Republic, and many other venues. His most recent book is Norman Jewison: A Director’s Life. He lives in Toronto with his wife and children.
