[OLA-IF-News] AILA Rescinds Sherman Alexie’s 2008 YA Book of the Year Award // IF Repercussions for Works by Accused Authors

Jennifer Maurer jennifer.maurer at state.or.us
Wed Mar 21 17:27:41 PDT 2018


Hi,

Some of you may not have seen this yet. School Library Journal posted a brief article indicating that "the American Indian Literature Association (AILA) is rescinding Sherman Alexie’s 2008 YA Book of the Year Award 'to send an unequivocal message that Alexie’s actions are unacceptable.' The actions in question relate to accusations of sexual harassment.

https://www.slj.com/2018/03/industry-news/aila-rescinds-sherman-alexies-2008-ya-book-year-award/

The #MeToo movement surfacing in children's publishing and today's announcement about rescinding Alexie's award each sparked discussions on the Future Ready Librarians Facebook page (a closed group with 14,000 members) about whether or not rescinding the award is a form of censorship, whether or not such a response is warranted, whether and how to separate an author from his or her work, and when or if to remove books from collections based on authors' behaviors. Such discussions are likely to occur in other educator and library communities, too. Here's a related Stacked post by Kelly, who is an associate editor and community manager at Book Riot and a former youth services librarian.

http://stackedbooks.org/2018/02/what-to-do-with-books-by-authors-accused-of-assault-racism-or-other-inappropriate-or-illegal-behaviors.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/business/childrens-publishing-sexual-harassment.html

This could make a good topic for intellectual freedom articles or conference sessions.

FYI,
Jen

Jen Maurer, MLS
School Library Consultant
State Library of Oregon |Library Support and Development
jennifer.maurer at state.or.us<mailto:jennifer.maurer at state.or.us> | 503-378-5011 | www.oregon.gov/osl/ld<http://www.oregon.gov/osl/ld>
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