![]() PEN America: What does Out of Darkness have to say about silencing stories?Īshley Hope Pérez: I grew up in a community about 20 minutes from New London, Texas, which is where the book is set. And I think that when we start subtracting ideas and experiences from young people’s education, we are failing them.” “I don’t know actually how we find our way back if these attacks on young people’s access to books succeed. “It needs to be shocking every time,” she told PEN America. Pérez, who is also a professor at The Ohio State University, spoke to PEN America about the experience of having her book caught up in the book-banning frenzy, and the need to treat the new movement as an urgent threat causing real harm to students. That made it the third most-banned book in U.S. ![]() ![]() The theatrics led Out of Darkness to be banned 23 times in the 2021-2022 school year, according to the newly released PEN America Index of Banned Books. So it’s painful for her to see her book among the many that have been banned as part of a wave of challenges washing over American schools.Īt school board meeting after school board meeting, a short passage of Out of Darkness was read aloud for shock. 2023 PEN America Literary Awards CeremonyĪshley Hope Pérez wrote her historical young adult novel Out of Darkness to give voice to stories that had been silenced. ![]()
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