We all have thoughts and feelings about the rise of book bannings in America so this is a great opportunity to have a discussion about it! Join author and professor, Samuel Cohen, for a conversation on his most recent release, Banning Books in America: Not a How-to, which is a book about banned books in the U.S. - about reading them, teaching them, and lending them under the shadow of political pressure not to. Bring your questions as Sam will have answers (or, at least, thoughtful responses that will make us think) to them. We hope you can join us for this important topic. 

About the Presenter:

Samuel Cohen (Associate Professor of English, University of Missouri) is the author of After the End of History: American Fiction in the 1990s (University of Iowa Press, 2009), co-editor (with Lee Konstantinou) of The Legacy of David Foster Wallace (University of Iowa Press, 2012), co-editor (with James Peacock) of The Clash Takes on the World: Transnational Perspectives on the Only Band That Matters (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), and Series Editor of The New American Canon: The Iowa Series in Contemporary Literature and Culture. He is also author of 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, 5th edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2016), and coauthor of Literature: The Human Experience, 13th edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2018). Banning Books in America: Not a How-To is forthcoming from Bloomsbury in February 2026.

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library and we're happy to be collaborating with the John Curtis Free Library in Hanover, MA as well as the Tewksbury Public Library to bring this program to our communities. We are thrilled to be partnering with the Ashland Senior Center for this event.

Virtual registration required. Register HERE. Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1017727239730/WN_WtAKC-JBS6W6Fu52ATBDqQ