When the Teen Lit Festival in Humble, Texas cut author Ellen Hopkins from the festival, four other authors left in support of Hopkins. According to Publishers Weekly, authors Pete Hautman, Melissa de la Cruz, Matt de la Pena, and Tera Lynn Childs all departed after Hopkins posted about the incident.
Hopkins has written about drug abuse and prostitution in her novels, raising concerns at the festival. She explained in a blog post: “I’m an author who is a voice for a generation that faces real problems every day. An author who tries to dissect those problems, look for reasons, suggest solutions, show outcomes to choices through characters who walk off the page. I’m an author who cares about her readership in a very real way. I am thoughtful, respectful of my readers, and not afraid to tell the truth.”
Melissa de la Cruz wrote the vampire series Blue Bloods. She explained her support: “I believe that as a writer, we have to stick up for each other, and against censorship, and against people who want to tell everyone else what to think, what to read, what to watch.”
Earlier this week we reported that two NJ libraries have removed an anthology of LGBT literary pieces authored by multicultural queer youth entitled Revolutionary Voices. The reasoning behind the censorship? “Child Pornography,” explained the county library director.