PEN America reports 3,743 bans May 20

PEN America said on May 7 that 3,743 unique book titles were banned in U.S. public schools during the 2024-2025 school year, adding a fresh data point to the group’s running count of school book removals. The free-expression organization said those titles were removed from libraries and classrooms between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. The figure resurfaced in coverage around PEN America’s annual Literary Gala in New York, where speakers tied domestic book removals to broader pressures on free expression. Novelist Ann Patchett received the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award at that event. ### Where did the 3,743 figure come from? PEN America said in a May 7 press release that its report, “Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans,” analyzed 3,743 unique titles removed from public school libraries and classrooms during the 2024-2025 school year. The group said it tracked 6,780 total instances of bans across 23 states during the same period. Publishers Weekly, citing PEN’s research, reported that the removals covered books taken from both classrooms and school libraries. USA Today also cited the report and said PEN had found more than 3,500 unique titles removed in the school year, with nonfiction accounting for nearly 30% of them. ### Why did PEN America focus this report on nonfiction? PEN America said the report examined how bans were increasingly hitting nonfiction as well as fiction, with books about history, biography, current events, and identity among the titles removed. The group said the doubling of banned nonfiction books showed that the campaign was not limited to sexually explicit material, an argument often made by supporters of removals. Publishers Weekly quoted PEN America program director Kasey Meehan as saying the bans were affecting “diverse representations, nonfiction books, and all kinds of books that are intended for young audiences.” PEN said the pattern reflected what it called an “embrace of anti-intellectualism.” ### How did the number enter coverage of the PEN gala? The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on May 20 that PEN America’s annual gala came after recent reports from PEN and the American Library Association documented a continued rise in book bans in the United States. The article cited the 3,743-title tally alongside remarks about threats to writers and journalists around the world. The Associated Press, in coverage of the May 14 event, said the gala was held as writers and journalists faced persecution globally and after PEN and the American Library Association reported thousands of works being pulled from schools and libraries. PEN co-CEO Summer Lopez told attendees, “First, they come for your freedom of expression.” ### What happened at the gala itself? Ann Patchett received the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award at PEN America’s 2026 Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on May 14. PEN America had announced in December that Patchett and film producer Jason Blum would be the event’s honorees. The Associated Press reported that the gala raised more than $2 million for PEN America. Patchett, according to amNewYork, said literary life depends on “bookstores and libraries and classrooms and banned novels,” linking the evening’s celebration directly to the organization’s anti-censorship work. ### What should readers look at next? PEN America’s report “Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans” remains the primary source for the 3,743-title figure and the 6,780 total ban instances cited in recent coverage. PEN America’s gala page and December 2025 press release identify Patchett and Blum as the 2026 honorees and place the event at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.