Award-winning authors and free expression advocates Bess Kalb (Buffalo Fluffalo series) and Tony Weaver, Jr. (Weirdo), have been named honorary chairs for Banned Books Week 2026 (October 4–10, 2026). They will be joined by youth honorary chairs Marshall Romero and Azeemah Sadiq.
At Sage, we believe that free expression in all forms is a basic human right and that belief is central to our mission of building bridges to knowledge. That’s why for more than a decade, we have sponsored the banned books readout — now known at the very popular Banned Books from the Big Chair booth — at the ALA Annual Conference, creating space for authors, educators, library workers, and readers to celebrate challenged books and advocate for the freedom to read.
The American Library Association (ALA) and Banned Books Week Coalition today unveiled the artwork for Banned Books Week 2026, October 4–10. Designed for use in Banned Books Week events nationwide and internationally, the 2026 theme is “Let Books Be. Protect the Freedom to Read.” The struggle against book bans is too immense to capture in a single image. This year’s Banned Books Week campaign features three illustrations showing how libraries and access to information enrich our lives.
The American Library Association (ALA) released its highly anticipated Top 11 Most Challenged Books List of 2025 as part of the 2026 State of America’s Libraries Report, offering a window into the ongoing challenges libraries continue to face head-on. As the nation’s libraries unite to celebrate the start of National Library Week and communities everywhere recognize the valuable contribution of America’s libraries and the people who power them, library workers around the country continue to grapple with censorship challenges and threats to their livelihood.
At the 2025 ALA Annual Conference, Sage, the Banned Books Week Coalition, and Unite Against Book Bans partnered to sponsor the Banned Books from the Big Chair booth. In this guest post from Luke Marquez, Events Manager for Sage, we highlight challenged authors, provide resources, and express why it’s more important than ever to stand up for the right to read.
