![]() ![]() ![]() I drew my inspiration for the novel from an actual school disaster: the 1937 New London school explosion that killed hundreds in an East Texas oil town just 20 minutes from my childhood home. As we reach the end of 2022, it has been banned in at least 29 school districts across the country.įrom the earliest stages of writing, I knew Out of Darkness would be difficult - for me, and for readers. At the beginning of 2021, Out of Darkness had been on library shelves for over five years without a single challenge or complaint. ![]() Hate mail and threats overwhelmed the inboxes where I once had received invitations for author visits and appreciative notes from readers. Then in 2021, my dream disintegrated into an author and educator's nightmare as my novel Out of Darkness became a target for politically motivated book bans across the country.Īttacks unfolded, not just on my writing but also on young people's right to read it. I regularly visited schools as an author and got to meet teens who reminded me of the students I taught in Houston - the amazing humans who had first inspired me to write for young adults. ![]() I spent my days teaching college literature courses and writing novels. This essay by Ashley Hope Pérez is part of a series of interviews with - and essays by - authors who are finding their books being challenged and banned in the U.S.įor over a decade, I lived my professional dream. ![]()
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