Author of OUT OF DARKNESS (now banned) & other novels. Former HS English teacher. Current lit professor. Grateful full time. My long threads are on Linktree👇🏽
Dec 18, 2021 • 16 tweets • 8 min read
ICYMI, book banning is now being pushed by county officials in Texas. This week Williamson County commissioners withheld CARES funds from @leanderisd & @roundrockisd based on false allegations about "X-rated" material available. More thoughts & links ahead in thread.
Good start coverage from @mikemarut of @KVUE here, but we need to put a finer point on these issues and get eyes on the situation. Because as with Abbott and Mike Kraus's claims--this is politically motivated & NOT ABOUT THE BOOKS.
Hey, @CedarParkPatch, @KUT, and @KVUE: in covering the commissioners’ denial of funds to @LeanderISD & @RoundRockISD over “X-rated” books, you should look at the fact that my book & others are also in libraries of schools in districts that WERE funded.
patch.com/texas/cedar-pa…
A simple library catalog search reveals the inconsistency. All of the districts have books like OUT OF DARKNESS because these highly vetted and celebrated works of literature serve the needs of students.
Dec 15, 2021 • 11 tweets • 7 min read
Hey folks, if you're tired of posts about book banning... join the club! But here's a thread on why we can't stop talking about it--and why you should register for this @PENamerica Teach-In TONIGHT, 8-9:30 pm EST. bit.ly/3pN2Kmd
Attacks on youth access to books are not letting up, and in some places, the costs for students are just getting higher. This week, in Central TX county commissioners withheld funds from @LeanderISD & @RoundRockISD in response to false claims of "X-rated" books in their schools.
Dec 4, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
It is emphatically NOT my responsibility, as a sexual abuse survivor, to educate those who falsely label YA lit "grooming" just because it contains sexual content of some kind. But I'm sick of the slimy implications being wiped like snot over our books. So I will spell this out.
"Grooming" is manipulative, predatory behavior, usually of a minor, with the goal of blurring the lines between appropriate and inappropriate touch or interaction. Why? A disoriented, gaslit, self-blaming target is much less likely to be able to identify, or report, abuse.
Dec 4, 2021 • 29 tweets • 7 min read
When it comes to school book bans, we need a powerful community response that puts students first and backs up teachers and librarians. That response starts with a clear understanding of what is happening. Here's what I see going on as of 12/4/21.
Attacks on youth access to books in schools often use misleading terms like “pornographic,” “inappropriate,” “controversial,” & “divisive” to describe books by or about non-white or non-dominant people, &/or that address experiences such as sexual assault or police brutality.
Nov 29, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Writing OUT OF DARKNESS broke my heart many times. It also gave me tools for navigating painful circumstances over the last several years.
(I want to think about how difficult books are a resource, and I suppose that means getting personal.)
I "finished" writing OUT OF DARKNESS in 2015, but my characters are still so present to me, their minds & hearts full of determination to create belonging, joy, & connection in the few spaces of relative safety they can find, given their circumstances.
Nov 27, 2021 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Enjoying the solo-travel no-kids-to-wrangle spa vibes at DFW airport and feeling a little thread-y, so here goes some thinking...
I've been thinking about the pattern that's emerged in the most recent chapter of conservatives' relentless efforts to undermine public schools. The pattern is painfully clear, but it doesn't make headlines. We need it to make headlines.
Nov 14, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Yes. The term “Porn” has been tactically stripped of meaning to facilitate its weaponization against non-dominant groups. Obvious in which books w sexual content are targeted. We can make the critical distinction. Porn as “sexual explicit content for the purposes of arousal”.
Books like GENDER QUEER or OUT OF DARKNESS include sex for other reasons, such as showing the pain of navigating sexuality from a marginalized identity, illustrating that survivors of sexual abuse can reclaim joy in their bodies, and illustrating what consent (and its absence).
Nov 13, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
We need to unite behind a clear, forceful message. First: This is not just an attack on books. It's an attack on kids. It's an attack on schools. It's an effort to paint teachers and librarians as "the enemy."
Second: ALL of our kids belong in public schools. ALL of our kids deserve to find themselves in the books they seek out in libraries. ALL of our kids have parents whose "rights" matter, not just white, straight kids.
Oct 13, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
For those following the Leander ISD book bans: removals/decision to keep did not correspond with the review outcome--what is the explanation, @LeanderISD?
Spreadsheets here, bottom right corner: leanderisd.org/communitycurri…
Sample screenshots follow in thread... @jzfriedman
Oct 11, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
My fantasy parent book content complaint form:
Title:
Did you read it?
Description of the book (in your own words):
One positive theme in the book:
What conversations are possible because of book?
Your primary concern:
How do passages of concern relate to book as a whole?
I think what is key is to frame parental concerns about book contents as the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one.
I appreciate so many folks offering solidarity & reading what @andrewkarre & @veronikellymars & others have to say about book bans. That, AND...
Teachers, librarians, principals, students, school board members: they are the ones most in the crosshairs of this awful moment.
Let's talk about the 20 (or more?) sane voices expressing gratitude for youth access to rich, relevant varied literature that it will take to match the impact and reach 1 hysterical adult's decontextualized claims about a novel in the school library.
Oct 8, 2021 • 36 tweets • 6 min read
yeah, right? Tons of bawdy humor and penis jokes and rape-y vibes and downright rape. I mean, I believe we can teach it all without harming kids, but I'm really sick of that stuff being held up as "educational". WTF, man.
Today, this week... in conversations about why books that are compelling to teens belong in libraries, there has been so much basic misunderstanding of what the hell literature is, what the hell education is. And the level of mistrust of teachers & librarians is staggering.
Sep 23, 2021 • 25 tweets • 4 min read
Long thread here, in response to messages to the effect that my books are “disgusting”...
PS: This is the same content as in the previous thread, except now it's
(a) accessible
and
(b) less annoying because there's no clicking on images.
Learning, y'all!
As an author, former Texas HS English teacher, professor, mom, and human, I try hard to take seriously what folks say, even where I disagree.
I work to assume that, even under personal attacks, there is some wish for meaningful dialogue.
