Banned Books Week: when it is, what it is, and what to read
Banned Books Week is an annual US event celebrating the freedom to read. Libraries, bookshops and schools put up displays of challenged and banned books, and readers are encouraged to read one. This page is updated each year.
When is Banned Books Week 2027?
Banned Books Week usually falls in late September or the first week of October. The organisers announce each year's dates and theme on bannedbooksweek.org. The 2027 dates and theme haven't been announced yet; we'll add them here once they are.
Who runs it?
Banned Books Week started in the US in 1982. It's organised by a coalition led by the American Library Association (ALA) together with booksellers', publishers', journalists' and free-expression groups. Its focus is on books challenged or removed in US schools and libraries.
Outside the US
- Canada: Freedom to Read Week is held in February, organised by the Book and Periodical Council.
- UK: there's no single national week; libraries and bookshops often join in around the same time as the US event.
A Banned Books Week reading list with a difference
Most Banned Books Week lists feature books challenged in American schools. For a different angle, here are books that governments, courts, customs and churches actually banned, all in print:
- Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm: banned in the Soviet bloc
- Ulysses: seized by US Customs until 1933
- Lady Chatterley's Lover: the 1960 obscenity trial
- The Satanic Verses: banned in India and many other countries
- Doctor Zhivago and The Gulag Archipelago: banned in the USSR
- All Quiet on the Western Front: burned by the Nazis
- Spycatcher: fought by the British government in court
- The Prince and Galileo's Dialogue: on the Vatican's Index
More: all banned classics, banned dystopian novels, banned books made into movies.
Ideas for the week
- Take the banned books quiz.
- Print our free bookmarks, reading challenge and bingo card for a display or a book club.
- Read up on the history of book banning.