American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
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abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
@abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
130 followers 35 following 8 posts
ABFE is the free expression initiative of the American Booksellers Association.
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Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
pstnyc.bsky.social
Via @shelf-awareness.com's Alex Mutter—it's so worrying that booksellers have to deal w/harassment from bad actors, but grateful that @abfefreeexpression.bsky.social's Philomena Polefrone is helping them deal with such abuse. #FreedomToRead www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...
ABFE's Philomena Polefrone Discusses Attacks on Bookstores
"When I started doing this work, I don't think I realized how consistently we'd be dealing with issues like this," said Philomena
www.shelf-awareness.com
May 3, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
odysseybks.bsky.social
We had an awesome Indie Bookstore Day! We focused in on Banned Book awareness with a raffle for @abfefreeexpression.bsky.social with prizes from @sarasbookmacarons.bsky.social, kids’ Banned Book Bingo, and a YA Banned Book Scavenger Hunt!
Thanks Kiao Wan Thai for the tea at our Bites event!
Bookseller Laure hosts a group of kids in a bingo game Cookies & Thai Tea set out for Banned Books & Bites Folks gather around the refreshments & talk books! Bookseller Bethany shows off a box of macarons from Sara
April 28, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
penamerica.bsky.social
Black-owned bookstores are spaces not just for books but for promoting and reclaiming culture and community. We talked to the owners of some of our favorite bookstores across the country. Hear their stories, and if one is near you, go check them out this #IndieBookstoreDay: pen.org/black-owned-...
April 26, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
tloeblookout.bsky.social
There are so many amazing #BlackOwnedBookstores around the nation, curated so well, esp support them as Black history is eradicated from schools. Few more I love are #UncleBobbies (Philly), #LitBar (Bronx), & #OctaviasBookshelf (Pasadena). Please add your faves as well! #IndieBookstoreDay
penamerica.bsky.social PEN America @penamerica.bsky.social · Apr 26
Black-owned bookstores are spaces not just for books but for promoting and reclaiming culture and community. We talked to the owners of some of our favorite bookstores across the country. Hear their stories, and if one is near you, go check them out this #IndieBookstoreDay: pen.org/black-owned-...
April 26, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
thelynxbooks.bsky.social
It's Independent Bookstore Day!

4/26 come celebrate our Independent Bookstore!

4/27 The Lynx's 1st birthday! Yoga, music by Collin Whitlock & The Wirebirds, speech at 2:15 @legroff.bsky.social plus cupcakes, karaoke.

& find limited-edition tees benefiting @abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
April 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
peoplesbooktakoma.com
Yesterday, Am*zon announced their annual sale that conveniently overlaps with Independent Bookstore Day (IBD). IBD is more than a discount. It’s about discovery, connection & PEOPLE. Algorithms don’t throw parties. Indies do. Join the #DCBookCrawl on 4/26! See what's in store at People's Book!
Post about your crawl with #dcbookcrawl and enter to win a raffle for $50! DC bookstore crawl map. Visit six stores or more and get a prize at your final stop! Exclusive merch! Banned Book Bingo! Music at 10am. Kids graphic novel talk and raffle at 3pm. Free ARC with purchase. Free wine 5-8pm.
April 16, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
flfreedomread.bsky.social
Yesterday, Senator McClain struggled to answer pretty clear questions about his bill (SB 1692).

Here, he provided factually inaccurate info about the committee review and appeal process. (See ALT text for details)
March 19, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
penamerica.bsky.social
3/18! Join PEN America, @abfefreeexpression.bsky.social and @everylibrary.bsky.social for Speak Out For Books! Testifying to State Legislative Committees, a free webinar on shaping and strategizing comments to legislative committees about book ban-related bills. Register now: pen.org/event/speak-...
Promotional poster for 'Speak Out for Books!' event on March 18, 2025, featuring advocate training against book bans by PEN America, EveryLibrary, and ABFE. The poster includes images of three speakers and a background of book spines with censored titles. Event details state it's online, free, and starts at 7:00 PM EST.
March 12, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
ashcstew.bsky.social
📢 Upcoming training session: "Speak Out For Books! Testifying to State Legislative Committees" featuring @penamerica.bsky.social, @everylibrary.bsky.social, and @abfefreeexpression.bsky.social!
pen.org/event/speak-...
Speak Out For Books! Testifying to State Legislative Committees - PEN America
This webinar will go over the basics of book ban-related bills, speaking to legislative committees, and how to strategize comments to effectively get their message across.
pen.org
March 11, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
northsouthbooks.bsky.social
We proudly join with @abfefreeexpression.bsky.social to stand against this executive order and the impact it will have on #FreedomtoRead.
authorsabb.bsky.social Authors Against Book Bans @authorsabb.bsky.social · Feb 7
AABB stands with our trans members, friends, colleagues, heroes, and the countless trans Americans who will be affected by this needlessly cruel Executive Order from the Trump Administration.

We are proud to do so alongside so many of our comrades in the fight against book bans.
Statement on the Trump administration's january 20,2025 EO Targeting Transgender, Intersex, Nonbinary and Gender Non Conforming Americans On January 20, the White House issued an executive order stating that the United States government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as defined “at conception.” The ripple effect of this order will undoubtedly affect public schools, public libraries, and the literature that is shelved in both. Among the many harms it causes, the order targeting transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans threatens unconstitutional censorship that could have a grave impact on literature for years to come. In dismissing trans, intersex, and nonbinary identities, the order blacklists LGBTQIA+ literature and invites the government to dictate the perspectives, beliefs, and identities that can exist in public forums receiving federal funding, amounting to financial coercion through the arbitrary withholding of funds. This censorship may begin with LGBTQIA+ perspectives, but it will not end there: allowing the government to censor one group erodes the First Amendment rights of all Americans, creating a precedent for silencing dissenting voices. If allowed to stand, the order will create new funding requirements imposed not only on federal entities, but private citizens and institutions who contract with them. Those requirements can and will be manipulated to dictate speech. The broader chilling effect on literature could be even harder to undo. Writers rely on funding from sources like the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the state-level institutions they fund. Trans, nonbinary, and intersex experience is vastly underrepresented in literature but disproportionately targeted by bans. During the 2022-2023 school year, 30% of books banned included LGBTQIA+ characters or themes. Such censorship robs us of perspectives that enrich the American story. Though the executive order in question tries to paint LGBTQIA+ people and allies as bullies enforcing their perspective on others through “legal and other socially coercive means,” that’s exactly what the order itself does, just as book-banning pressure groups have done since 2020 in school boards and libraries around the country. The fate of trans, intersex, and nonbinary people is not a political ideology, it’s a matter of human rights, civil rights, and freedom of expression. Government erosion of those rights should concern all Americans, regardless of their investment in LGBTQIA+ literature specifically. This executive order is censorship, pure and simple, and it has no place in a free society. It must be rescinded or stayed as soon as possible, and at the latest, before the earliest implementation deadline, February 19, 2025. Financially blacklisting trans, intersex, and non-binary perspectives will rob us of a vital literature yet to be written while insulting the dignity of LGBTQIA+ people everywhere. This return to McCarthyism by other means is a leap backwards to a grim chapter of American history. Sincerely, the undersigned, • American Booksellers Association • American Booksellers for Free Expression • Andrews McMeel • Annie's Foundation • Audio Publishers Association • Authors Against Book Bans • Berry Powell Press • Cardinal Rule Press • Charlesbridge Publishing • Chestnut Publishing House • Comic Book Legal Defense Fund • Deborah Sloan and Company and Kidsbuzz • Developmental Texts • Empowering Latino Futures • EveryLibrary • Firewater Media Group • Florida Freedom to Read Project • Foreword Reviews • Freedom to Read Project • Gryphon Publishing Consulting, LLC • Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) • IngramSpark • Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore • Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship • Lambda Literary • Latino 247 Media Group • Lee Wind, author • Levine Querido • Library Futures • Livingston Parish Library Alliance • Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship • Macmillan Children's Publishing Group • The National Book Critics Circle • National Coalition Against Censorship • NorthSouth Books • Nosy Crow • Patagonia • Publishers and Writers of San Diego and Orange County • PEN America • PFLAG Fresno • PubWest • Rattling Good Yarns Press • Read Freely Alabama • Red Comet Press LLC • Rutherford County Library Alliance • Sara Paretsky, Writer • SCBWI • SEAT • SparkPoint Studio • St Tammany Library Alliance • Stone Bridge Press • Texas Freedom to Read Project • Walker Books Group for Candlewick Press, Holiday House Books, and Peachtree Publishing • We Need Diverse Books
February 20, 2025 at 12:51 PM
abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
ABFE and stands with the Educational Bookshop, which was raided by Israeli police on Sunday, and its owners, booksellers Ahmad and Mahmoud Muna, who are currently under house arrest.
February 11, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
penamerica.bsky.social
More than 50 organizations representing authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, distributors, and national and state advocacy nonprofits have signed a joint letter expressing concern that the White House EO on gender identity will lead to censorship: pen.org/press-releas...
February 5, 2025 at 8:03 PM
abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
ABA and ABFE are proud to join 50+ organizations in signing a joint letter expressing concern that the executive order of January 20, 2025, targeting transgender, nonbinary, intersex, and gender nonconforming people, which could lead to viewpoint-based censorship of literature.
February 5, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
letutahread.bsky.social
New blog post: Book Banning is not a Hoax… In Utah, it’s a Crisis! letutahread.org/blog/bookban... @everylibrary.bsky.social @aabbri.bsky.social @penamerica.bsky.social @utaheducationassoc.bsky.social @authorsguild.bsky.social @elanakarnold.bsky.social @abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
Book Banning is Not a Hoax… In Utah, it’s a Crisis! — LET UTAH READ
This week: More book bans in Utah. Students prohibited from bringing their own books to school. Trump administration declares book bans “a hoax”
letutahread.org
February 3, 2025 at 12:42 AM
abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
This week, Laney Hawes from the @txfreedomread.bsky.social came on the BookED podcast is back to talk about what lawmakers are cooking up in Texas to attack the freedom to read in the 2025 legislative session. Spoiler: it doesn’t look good. sites.libsyn.com/109160/site/...
January 31, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
weneeddiversebooks.bsky.social
To learn more about book bans, follow: American Library Association, Unite Against Book Bans, Authors Against Book Bans, EveryLibrary, National Coalition Against Censorship, The Author’s Guild, Florida Freedom to Read Project, Texas Freedom to Read Project, American Booksellers for Free Expression.
A gold, beige, orange, and pinked colored graphic, designed to look like a white memo is taped to the background. The title text reads as follows: “To learn more about the fight against book bans, follow:” and beneath is a list of organizations. From top to lop, the list of organizations reads as follows: “American Library Association, Unite Against Book Bans, Authors Against Book Bans, EveryLibrary, National Coalition Against Censorship, The Author’s Guild, Florida Freedom to Read Project, Texas Freedom to Read Project, and American Booksellers for Free Expression.
January 30, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
txfreedomread.bsky.social
YES!!! We LOVE our local indie bookshops! They’re some of our fiercest advocates in the fight for the freedom to read! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
handle.invalid Laura @handle.invalid · Jan 30
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I see Talking Animals Books on the signee list - that's the very neat little bookstore in Grapevine I visited back in December! bsky.app/profile/elby...
txfreedomread.bsky.social Texas Freedom to Read Project @txfreedomread.bsky.social · Jan 29
On Tuesday, @txfreedomread.bsky.social along with 33 partners & allies- who represent Texas parents, students, authors, librarians, educators, grandparents & concerned citizens- sent a joint letter to our elected leaders.
January 30, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Reposted by American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE)
ebbooksellers.bsky.social
Here in the Bay Area many feel largely (if not entirely) insulated from the concerns surrounding banned books. It's often either an abstract problem or elsewhere. But here's the thing: the ubiquity of Amazon, & their increasingly full-throated support of the GOP, brings it v. close to home. (1/2)
January 30, 2025 at 4:39 AM
abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
Book bans are not a hoax. Don’t get distracted by rhetoric: censorship is rampant, books by LGBTQ+ people and people of color are being targeted, and we don’t have to stop calling out book bans when we see them. Period. #ReadingIsResistance #IReadBannedBooks
"Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is the truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party." — George Orwell, "1984" (banned book)
January 30, 2025 at 3:30 PM
abfefreeexpression.bsky.social
Hoaxes:
- Pizza rat
- Crop circles... probably 👀
- 1938 "War of the Worlds" broadcast
Not hoaxes:
- Climate change
- Moon landing
- BOOK BANS
January 30, 2025 at 2:05 PM