American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE) is now a 501(c)(3) non-profit!
This new non-profit will be dedicated to protecting the right to read, promoting free expression in the United States, and supporting diversity in literature and bookselling. ABA’s legislative advocacy supporting free expression will continue through ABA’s advocacy department. Going forward, ABFE donations may be tax-deductible and ABFE will be eligible for grants to help support its work.
ABFE's Mission
ABFE is organized for educational and literary purposes and participates in the following activities: 
Education: We host book signings and talks by authors who offer different viewpoints. We conduct workshops/seminars focused on best practices for supporting different viewpoints in literature and ensuring access to books. We organize and participate in educational events and campaigns to raise awareness about constitutional rights as they pertain to books and reading. We also raise awareness about the importance of the ability for authors and booksellers to express different points of view.
Resources: We develop and distribute educational materials, such as reading lists. ABFE also does limited advocacy work supporting constitutional rights as they pertain to readers, authors, and booksellers.
Approximately 80% of time is dedicated to education, 15% to advocacy, 3% to fundraising, and 2% to admin. These activities help ABA support literature, educate the public on the importance of authors, reading, and different viewpoints in literature.
ABFE's Board
Founding ABFE board members include: Allison Hill, Philomena Polefrone, Ray Daniels, and Dave Grogan from ABA, as well as:
- Maggie Tokuda-Hall, an award winning and bestselling children's and young adult book author, and a former independent bookseller. She is a founding member and national leader of Authors Against Book Bans.
- David Horowitz, a longtime champion of First Amendment rights. He has been the Executive Director of Media Coalition — an association that defends the First Amendment rights of authors, publishers, booksellers and librarians, producers and retailers of films, home video and video games — since 1998. He holds a JD from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law.
What’s Changed?
In the past, ABA's free expression education, advocacy, and resources have focused on equipping independent bookstores. As ABA continues to do that essential work, ABFE will get at the root of the issue, empowering the public to understand and strengthen the fundamental right to free expression. We will now be able to expand our public-facing resources, offer webinars for broader audiences, grow our social media presence, and participate in more public events.
Public ABFE Resources
- Toolkit: Navigating Bookstore Intimidation, Threats, and Harassment (2026). Use this if you need to prepare for or respond to attempts to censor your store.
- "The ABA Right to Read Toolkit" (2023). Use this to guide your in-store free expression advocacy, learn to advocate safely, and contribute to local free expression movements.
2025 Supporters
ABFE is grateful for its affiliate and publisher support:
- FREADom Fighters: Macmillan Publishers
- Friends of Free Expression: Beacon Press, Bloomsbury Publishing, Chronicle Books, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Independent Publishers Caucus, Scholastic, Seven Stories Press, Simon & Schuster, Sourcebooks
- Banned Books Week Kit Sponsors: Ingram Content Group and Penguin Random House
- Independent Bookstores (Thank you to ABA Members who donated to ABFE when they renewed their membership dues. Your support helps make ABFE’s work possible, and conveys the value of this work to ABA.)
- Come from the Heart
Contact [email protected] for opportunities to join our affiliate and publisher supporters!
Giving to ABFE
Individual donors drive much of our advocacy — become a one-time or recurring donor today!