Eleanor Roosevelt Award Recognizes Banned Authors for ‘Bravery in Literature’
Eleanor Roosevelt Award Recognizes Banned Authors for ‘Bravery in Literature’
Ceremony honors author Judy Blume with lifetime achievement.
Anna Eleanor Fierst knows exactly how important the written word was to her great-grandmother, Eleanor Roosevelt. Her childhood memories of the former first lady impressing upon her grandchildren and great-grandchildren the value of books—in literacy and learning about a world outside of one’s own—came in the form of a book-of-the-month club.
At the time, it was called the Junior Literary Guild and the end result was Fierst, as a child, receiving a book every month from her great-grandmother.
“It’s a passion I think that exists in the family,” Fierst says, adding that her mother, Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves, was a librarian. “And making sure we became early readers. Read a lot and read often.”
So it’s no wonder at a time when books are being removed from school and municipal library shelves at an alarming pace, The Eleanor Roosevelt Center in collaboration with the Fisher Center at Bard College decided to award some of the very authors of the books banned with the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Bravery in Literature.
The award was bestowed on six authors who have championed intellectual freedom and the fight against censorship on Saturday in a ceremony at the Fisher Center in Annandale-On-Hudson, New York. The recognition is for authors whose works focus on racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender equity and they are:
Laurie Halse Anderson, author of SHOUT, a book about surviving sexual assault at the age of 13 and a manifesta for the #MeToo era.
Mike Curato, author of his debut young adult graphic novel Flamer, which was also awarded the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Young Adults and the 2021 Massachusetts Book Award for Middle Grade/Young Adults. Flamer was one of the most banned and challenged books of the year, according to the Eleanor Roosevelt Center.
Alex Gino, author of Melissa, writes queer and progressive middle grade novels. Melissa has also been recognized with the Stonewall and Lambda literary awards.
George M. Johnson, author of All Boys Aren’t Blue, a New York Times bestseller that was the second most banned book in 2022 in the United States, according to the American Library Association.
Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer: A Memoir, was published in 2019. Kobabe’s work is heavily influenced by fairy tales, homesickness and the search for identity.
Jelani Memory, author of a Kids Book About Racism, the first book from a line of more than 100 books.
Fierst says the award aligns with what was important to her great-grandmother. Eleanor Roosevelt and the center established in her name “educates, inspires and empowers participants to use their talent and resources to build a sustainable world” that reflects the former first lady’s dedication to human rights.
“This is a passion she would have pursued and been very approving of, which is to bring books, all kinds of books, to children who wouldn’t find themselves in ‘mainstream’ books,” Fierst says.
The ceremony also honored legendary author Judy Blume with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her 25 young-reader books that include Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret and Forever as well as her four best-selling novels for adults that include Wifey and Smart Women.
“[Judy Blume] has been a pioneer in bringing books to the forefront that are not necessarily the kinds of books that I grew up with as a child,” Fierst says. “These are books that really look at kids who don’t see themselves in the typical book that you might pick up in a bookstore or even in a library or a progressive community like the one I live in.”
In a recent interview with Variety, Blume addresses growing censorship by asking, “What are you protecting your children from? Protecting your children means educating them and arming them with knowledge, and reading and supporting what they want to read.”
In the first eight months of 2023, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) reported 695 attempts to censor library materials and services and documented challenges to 1,915 unique titles, which is a 20% increase from the same reporting period in 2022. That timeframe saw the highest number of book challenges since ALA began compiling the data more than 20 years ago, according to the organization’s website. The vast majority of challenges were to books written by or about a person of color or a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
“The banning of books is a hot subject. It’s something that people are really concerned about now,” Fierst says. “We are looking at it from the standpoint of what is something that is really happening in the field of human rights, specifically for young people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, herself, Fierst goes on to say, would have said the increasing number of libraries and schools facing backlash against certain authors is something that is extremely unfortunate.
“No matter where you are in [kindergarten] through [12th grade],” Fierst says, “It’s really important to your sense of self worth and esteem that you are able to find at least a few books that express the kind of thinking and where you are at as a person.”