Free Expression

Shawn Morin named CEO and president of Ingram; HarperCollins Publishers creates HarperCollins France; Columbia University Press Sales Consortium adds Harvard University Press; Imprisoned Egyptian novelist wins 2016 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award; Winners of 2015 James Tiptree Jr. Award, 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award announced; 2016 National Book Awards entry form open; 2016 Kirkus Prize judges named

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has vetoed a bill that free speech groups feared would have a chilling effect on the selection of books taught in the state’s public schools. In March, ABFE joined a letter urging McAuliffe to veto House Bill 516.

In his monthly personal opinion column, ABFE Director Chris Finan discusses the similarities he finds in the government’s attempts to force Apple to unlock the contents of an iPhone and its past maneuvers to infringe on the reader privacy rights of bookstore customers.

More than 150 writers from 30 countries will gather in New York City for the 12th Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. Booksellers are invited to use a special discount code for online ticket orders and to share the code with their customers.

American Booksellers for Free Expression has joined other free speech groups in urging Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to veto a bill that they fear will have a chilling effect on the selection of books that are taught in the state’s public schools.

Two of the five Hong Kong booksellers who were taken into custody last year by Chinese authorities have returned home, according to Hong Kong police.

American Booksellers for Free Expression has joined a statement protesting a decision by the Miami Jewish Community Center to cancel a play after only four performances because of complaints that it is critical of Israel.

This year’s Banned Books Week, from September 25−October 1, will shine the spotlight on banned or challenged literature by diverse writers and explore why diverse books are disproportionately singled out for censorship.

ABA is urging the chief executive of Hong Kong to demand that Chinese authorities release five employees of a Hong Kong publisher and bookseller who are being held on the Chinese mainland.

ABFE Director Chris Finan looks at the implications for the freedom to write, publish, and sell books, when authors and publishers respond to controversies over their works by pulling them from the marketplace.

Protests over the disappearance of five employees of a Hong Kong publisher and its bookstore are continuing two weeks after the last of the men vanished.

Tattered Cover General Manager Matt Miller will recreate the free speech training given to all new employees of the iconic Denver bookstore at a Winter Institute session on January 26.

ABA issued a statement on January 7 expressing “extreme concern” over the fate of five employees of a Hong Kong publisher and its bookstore who have apparently been taken into custody by Chinese authorities and taken to the Chinese mainland.

Northshire Bookstore owner Chris Morrow’s response to a customer who yelled at staff and threatened to put the store out of business for displaying an illustrated copy of American Qur’an has received widespread support.

Attorneys representing two New Orleans bookstores and ABA urged a federal judge to block enforcement of a new Louisiana law that requires website owners to verify that visitors to their sites are 18 or older before providing access to non-obscene material that could be deemed “harmful to minors” because of its sexual content.