censorship – Page 7 – Laurie Halse Anderson

February 4, 2008

Have I mentioned that censorship makes me cranky?

What a way to start the month. First, John Green’s LOOKING FOR ALASKA is under fire for being “pornographic”.

And now, some parents are going after SPEAK. The teacher involved has asked me not to name the school because she wants the process and policies of the district to unfold away from the glare of any spotlights. I respect that. I am allowed to say that it’s a middle school in suburban Detroit. For the record, this has also happened in New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Washington, New York, Maine, and California. (As a result of the challenges, the book was embraced, not banned. Which does make an author feel good and a teacher feel even better.)

I sent her a note with teen sexual assault statistics and shared the feedback I’ve had from readers and their parents, who are grateful for a story that allows them to broach a difficult subject.

This teacher could use some professional support. If you teach SPEAK, can you please leave a note in the comments section for her? Tell her why you use the book. Tell her about your classroom experiences and your professional opinion about the place of the book in the curriculum. Or just give her a pat on the back. If you are a teen, tell her what the book meant to you.

Thank you very much and spread the word.

Now for something positive! Join the brilliant people at The Brown Bookshelf for 28 Days Later – an awesome, wonderful, joyful concept: a black history month celebration of children’s literature. They are highlighting an African-American author or illustrator every day this month. Today’s honoree is Rita Williams-Garcia, whom I met at NCTE back in November. If you’re looking for some great authors, start with this list.

This is my editor Sharyn November with the lovely and talented Rita Williams-Garcia.

Our Team In Training effort is going strong. Between the two of us, BH and I have already raised $1755 of our goal of $5000. Yeah, that means we’re still standing here, in the snow, shivering, with our hands out. Please donate to the goose or donate to the gander. We’re raising $5000 and running a half marathon for the National Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Come on. Give a little!

(I ran 5 miles on Saturday and 4 miles yesterday. BH ran 5 miles both days. We didn’t have any trouble sleeping this weekend.)

Thank you to the Giants and Patriots for a great game last night!!! All hail the Giants defense – even though I wanted the other guy to win, you gotta respect the job they did.

And now the countdown to March Madness…

Along with the countdown to my deadline. scribblescribblescribble

47 comments

October 1, 2007

“You can have my book when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers”

The subject line comes from an awesome PR campaign by the public libraries of Wyoming. It is the perfect kick-off for this week because……

HAPPY BANNED BOOKS WEEK!!! Celebrate that most treasured of our freedoms – the freedom to think and read what you want – by reading a banned book. Choose one of mine. Or one of Chris Crutcher’s or one that made the Top Ten List last year.

Do you think we have come so far in America we don’t have to worry about banned books? Then read this gay-bashing, librarian loathing, freedom crushing article.

Speaking of Crutcher….. we have an Amazing Author Alert: Chris Crutcher is coming to Syracuse. THIS WEEK! Come out on Wednesday night to hear Crutcher talk about “Turning Real Life into Fiction” at the Onondaga County Public Library. BH and I will be there. If you see us, please say hello. Chris is one of the most important YA writers of our generation and a great speaker – this is a terrific opportunity. He will also be signing books and reading from his newest book, Deadline, at the Dewitt Barnes & Noble on Tuesday night at 7:30pm (thanks for the heads-up, ShelfLife.)

Many thanks to all the conference-goers who came out to the SCBWI Fall Philly on Saturday. Special thanks to for driving me to and fro (w/ great tunes playing) and former regional RA Laurie Krause Kiernan for passing on five boxes of unloved canning jars that I will now attempt to fill with applesauce. I really appreciated all of the kind things and the stories that people told me over the course of the day. Allow me to reiterate what I said in my speech – turn off the Internet and go work on your book now. Then go for a walk or a run!

Had a great time with two of our daughters, their beloveds, and various friends at the PA Renaissance Festival on Sunday. We got to hear the Tartan Terrors again. I think I might have to become a groupie. Photos of all the festivities as soon as we get our Internet and server problems solved. At the rate it’s going, it may be a month or so.

I have SO MUCH WRITING to do it isn’t even funny, but it doesn’t matter because it is October and October is the best month.

17 comments

September 21, 2007

The difference between being a “Writer” & an “Author”

The writing has gone well this week. And that’s all I want to say about that because I am getting superstitious.

The other stuff I’ve been doing made me think about the differences between being a writer and being a published author. So, a list. maybe this is my Friday Five.

1. A writer writes stories and poetry.

1a. An author writes email to the kind people who ask her to visit their school, their library, the monthly meeting of their historical society, their book club, and explain that while she actually likes those kinds of visits, she cannot attend because she doesn’t have enough writing time as it is.

2. A writer writes stories and poetry.

2a. An author writes email to conference organizers with details about airplanes and questions about hotel rooms, and more email declining to read a self-published novel about the “pain and torment of (fill in the blank) and one soul’s journey to rise above it”, and more email declining to share her agent’s name, and more email with questions about publication dates, galley dates, revision dates, and more email inquiring of experts some profoundly obscure facts.

3. A writer writes stories and poetry and reads stories and poetry.

3a. An author writes blogs and reads blogs and comments about blogs and posts pictures to blogs. She writes to her web guy and beats herself up for not writing more content for the website overhaul.

4. A writer wakes up in the morning and eats and moves into her story without pause.

4a. An author wakes up in the morning and eats and moves into the phone call list: to the accountant and the kids and the mother and the mother’s doctor, then she rearranges her Netflix queue, and finally sits down to write …. speeches because she has a bunch of them coming. This reminds her to chase down a couple of hotel reservations.

5. A writer writes.

5a. An author wishes she could write more.

And now you now how the non-writing part of my week went.

In other news…

Thanks to everyone in Bishop who came out to hear me at SUNY Cortland last night. I hope Thursday wasn’t too thirsty.

I am not familiar with the graphic novel, Eightball #22, by Daniel Clowes (though I did like Ghost World). If any of you are, would you care to comment about how the book led to the resignation of an English teacher?

Lunch today: hard-boiled eggs and fresh acorn squash with honey.

I have to fire the Eagles defense and special teams from my fantasy football team. This is killing me, but the boys are not coming through. Sigh.

19 comments

September 14, 2007

One down, xxxxx to go

Yep, I did it. Wrote Chapter One of my new WIP yesterday. Now if I could just have about two hundred days in a row like that, I’ll be in good shape. (No, it won’t have two hundred chapters, but I need lots of time for revision.)

It’s almost 7am which is when I get to work, but before I dive into Chapter Two, I thought I’d leave you with a Five Ways to Procrastinate on Friday:

1. My father, Rev. Frank Halse, was in the newspaper yesterday. I’m bummed that the photo isn’t online, too. He is rather distinguished. Go, Dad!

2. In other family news, daughter Meredith recommends Our Voice 2008; a site for people under the age of 30 who want their voices and concerns heard int he next election. Please, please, please take a look at this. Our country needs you to be involved in the next election.

3. Want to combine your passion for knitting and respect for the work of Neil Gaiman? Check out this sweater.

4. The censors and defilers of our Constitution have been at it again. Read about the latest challenges to Ellen Wittlinger’s Sandpiper, J. L. Powers’ The Confessional, and Stephen Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower on the AS IF! blog.

5. You can join us in Mexico, NY tomorrow morning and help support our library, which is a vital part of our community. The Mexico 5K Cider Run is a 3.1 mile run through the streets of the village. The people are very kind and the money goes to a great cause. Plenty of people run slowly or walk, so don’t worry if you move at less than blazing speed. Hope to see you there.

7 comments

May 6, 2007

Talking about censorship & preparing to dive into the Pool of Revision

Madison, Wisconsin and the CCBC are fun. I was there last week to talk about censorship.

The first half of the workshop name.

The second half.

This is KT Horning, Pat Scales, and Megan Schleisman. KT Horning is the director of CCBC and has spent her career making sure there are great books for kids. (She also has a bachelor’s degree in linguistics. What a wise woman.) Megan is a CCBC librarian who very kindly schlepped me around and made sure we had time for a delightful cup on coffee on the shore of Lake Mendota. (I think it was Lake Mendota. Wisconsin has a lot of lakes.) Thank you!

Pat was the leader of the workshop. She is a Master Librarian (I don’t know if that is a real title. If it’s not, it should be) who has worked in libraries for 36 years. I could listen to her talk about books, kids, and the glories of the First Amendment for days on end. It’s a good thing I got to listen to her when I did. Pat was just elected the incoming President of ALSC, and will be rather busy for the next three years.

(I was fascinated to learn about the Lawyers for Libraries program, offered by the ALA to help “build a nationwide network of attorneys committed to the defense of the First Amendment freedom to read and the application of constitutional law to library policies, principles, and problems.” The CCBC also has many resources for teachers and librarians who are having books challenged or banned. Please check it out and pass on the information!!!)

Thanks to all of the teachers (I knew some of them ::waving to Appleton contingent::) who made the trek to Madison!

We had a bunch of birthdays in the Forest over the weekend, with more this coming week. I head out of town on Friday for my booksigning in Bethlehem, PA and the graduation of my oldest kid from college. (Want proof that the time-space continuum has been mucked up? There is no earthly way that Stephanie is 22 years old, that she is ready to graduate, and that she has a real job. And yet, apparently, this is the case. Go figure.)

After the graduation festivities, I’m off to Toronto for the International Reading Association Convention.

But before any of this happens, I am going to unplug the phones and dive into the final (I hope) revision of my historical novel. So I might not be in LJ-land much for the next couple of weeks. On the other hand, I might, if I think I have anything useful to say about the revision process. Stay tuned.

I leave you (temporarily) with some of my daffodils.

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