PEN America report says nonfiction bans doubled

PEN America said on May 7 that nonfiction books made up a sharply larger share of school book bans in the 2024-2025 academic year, a shift the writers and free-expression group detailed in a new report on censorship in U.S. public schools. The report, “Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans,” analyzed 3,743 unique titles removed from school libraries and classrooms between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. PEN America said 29% of those titles were nonfiction and that censorship of nonfiction had more than doubled from the prior school year. Over the same period, the organization said it tracked 6,780 total instances of bans across 23 states. ### Which books does PEN America say are being removed more often? PEN America said the books increasingly affected include history titles, health books, biographies, memoirs and educational reference works for students. The group said it documented bans on more than 1,100 unique educational or informational titles for young people, including textbooks, reference texts, history books, biographies and autobiographies. (pen.org) The May 7 press release named examples that ranged from *Night* by Elie Wiesel to *RuPaul* by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, *Aztec, Inca, and Maya* by Elizabeth Baquedano and *Challenges for LGBTQ Teens* by Martha Lundin. PEN America also cited Utah’s addition this month of Jaycee Dugard’s memoir to a statewide banned-books list. (pen.org) ### How large is the broader school book-ban campaign in PEN America’s count? PEN America’s book-ban tracker says it found 6,870 instances of school book bans during the 2024-2025 school year across 23 states and 87 public school districts. On the same page, the group says it has documented nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021. The organization’s May 7 report page said the 3,743 unique titles examined in “Facts & Fiction” were a subset of that broader count, focusing on the content of books banned in the 2024-2025 school year. (pen.org) The report page said the findings extend PEN America’s earlier research on bans affecting books about race, racism, LGBTQ+ people, sex and other subjects. ### What explanation did PEN America give for the rise in nonfiction bans? (pen.org) Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said in the May 7 release that the latest trend showed “an embrace of anti-intellectualism” that devalues education and expertise. The press release said the rise in banned nonfiction and educational titles marked “a new casualty” in campaigns to suppress learning. (pen.org) The report itself said books on subjects such as ancient Egypt, the digestive system and teen self-help were being swept into censorship efforts even though nonfiction titles are not always the primary targets of removal campaigns. PEN America said that pattern showed bans reaching beyond novels and graphic books into materials anchored in factual, historical and scientific content. (pen.org) ### Did PEN America provide a national tally for school and library bans together? PEN America’s materials for this report focused on public schools, not a combined national count for schools and libraries. The May 7 release and report page both described removals from school libraries and classrooms and gave counts for unique titles, total ban instances, states and districts. (pen.org) The same materials did not provide a separate nationwide tally for nonfiction removals in public libraries. PEN America’s broader book-ban page describes its tracking as centered on censorship in public schools, while also saying the organization fights restrictions in schools and libraries. ### What else happened at PEN America this week? PEN America held its annual gala on May 14 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where author Ann Patchett and producer Jason Blum were among the featured speakers. (pen.org) The event raised more than $2 million for the organization, according to Associated Press reporting carried by ABC News. (pen.org) Summer Lopez, PEN America’s co-chief executive, told attendees that threats to free expression remained central to the organization’s work. PEN America’s report “Facts & Fiction” remains available on the group’s website, alongside its broader 2024-2025 school book-ban data and related reports. (abcnews.com)