Organizing a Banned Books Week Event: A Q&A With Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop

Most bookstores that participate in Banned Books Week present displays of challenged titles. Some booksellers go further and organize events. During this year’s celebration (September 27 – October 3), The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina, will present a program of readings by local authors and others from banned books. This follows a similar event that was attended by 50 customers during the store’s Independent Bookstore Day celebration in May.

Chris Finan, director of American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE), asked Regulator Bookshop owner Tom Campbell to describe how the event was organized.

Chris Finan: Why did you decide to create an event around banned books? Have you done programs like this before?

Tom Campbell: The event was part of our Independent Bookstore Day programming. It seemed like a banned books reading would be a good way to show one of the roles an independent bookstore plays, both in the community and in the culture at large. We had not done a banned books reading before.

CF: How did you organize the event? Who did you invite?

TC: We invited local authors and asked them to read from a “favorite” banned book. We sent them a list of banned books, compiled from ABFE and from other sources. Most of the organizing for the banned books reading was done by e-mail, so the time factor wasn’t huge.

CF: How did the authors respond? Was it difficult to persuade them?

TC: The authors loved the idea. The reply e-mail from one of the authors started with “Oh, hell yes...” Everyone who was going to be in town that day said yes. Here are the authors and the books they read from:

• Katy Munger, Captain Underpants
• Monica Byrne, A Wrinkle in Time
• David Payne, Lady Chatterley’s Lover
• David Cecelski, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World

We thought it would also be a good idea to bring in people from local publishers. Mark Simpson-Vos is an editor at University of North Carolina Press, Chuck Adams is an editor at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, and Michael McCullough is the sales manager at Duke University Press.

• Mark Simpson-Vos, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
• Chuck Adams, The Catcher in the Rye
• Michael McCullough, The Handmaid’s Tale

CF: How did you promote the event? How many people showed up?

TC: We promoted the event pretty simply as “Local authors reading from banned books.” We used our usual means of promotion — press releases, e-mails, social media, etc. About 50 people showed up.

CF: How long did the speakers talk? Did you use a moderator? Were there questions? Did you think the discussion was interesting?

TC: Each author was asked to read for just 10 minutes or so. I did a brief introduction of the author, and then the author did a brief introduction of the material they were reading, why they had chosen it, and why it had been banned. We held questions until all the authors had read. The discussion was great. We didn’t keep exactly to the schedule.

CF: What comments did you hear from your customers later? Did you sell any books?

TC: People were most surprised to hear that kids’ books like Captain Underpants and A Wrinkle in Time had been banned. Katy Munger did a hilarious reading from Captain Underpants, showing how it was subversive of adult authority, and thus clearly needed to be kept out of the hands of children.

We only sold a few books, but the event was a great “bonding” experience — a way for the people who came to feel connected to and supportive of the bookstore.

CF: Did you think the event was worth the time invested? Will you do it again? Will you do anything differently next time?

TC: We would definitely do it again, and will, for Banned Books Week. One thing we will do differently this time is to let the local chapter of the ACLU know about the event so they can help promote it.