Laurie Halse Anderson on Censorship

Laurie Halse Anderson’s celebrated young adult novel "Speak" tells the story of Melinda, a high school student who stops speaking after a sexual assault. "Speak" was a National Book Award finalist. It was also an immediate target for censors. In the 2022-2023 school year, Speak and its adaptations were banned 14 times, according to PEN America’s Index of Banned Books. Her other books were banned 13 times. This year, Anderson won the highest honor for children's literature, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which comes with a gift of 5 million Swedish kronor, or about $500,000. Anderson donated $100,000 of that prize to PEN America, and talked to the free speech organization about the current book-banning crisis.