'Evening Without' Sept. 25 In Waitsfield

We're noting Banned Books Week again this year with a program of readings from banned works. As before, well-known Vermont authors will read passages from books targeted by censors.

The program (admission by donation) takes place Sunday, Sept.25 at 7 p.m. at the Big Picture Theater, 48 Carroll Road (off Route 100) in Waitsfield. (View a flyer on the event. Note that most roads into Waitsfield have reopened following storm damage, but for current road status check with the theater at 496-8994 or visit the Vermont Agency of Transportation Web site.)

Banned Books Week is an annual event sponsored during the last week of September by the American Library Association and noted nationally. It was first observed in 1982 to celebrate the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion, even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular.

The ACLU-VT’s first “Evening Without” program took place two years ago in Norwich. The event received national attention and was so popular that the ACLU decided to make it an annual event and to hold it in a different Vermont town or city each year. Last year’s program was in Brattleboro, as part of that town’s literary festival.

Featured readers for this year's "Evening Without" are:

• Lisa Alther of Burlington, novelist and author of short stories
• Philip Baruth of Burlington, novelist and blogger
• Emily Bernard of Colchester, author and essayist
• Rusty DeWees of Elmore, author and actor
• David Goodman of Waterbury Center, author and journalist
• Tanya Lee Stone of South Burlington, author of fiction and non-fiction for children and teens
• Eric Zencey of Montpelier, novelist, essayist, and political economist

Authors whose works will be read:

• Maya Angelou (b. 1928) is perhaps best known for her 1970 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an account of growing up black and female in segregated Arkansas, but she is also a poet and screenwriter. Frequent challenges to her work, in part prompted by an account of a childhood rape and by her use of sexual imagery, have assured her a spot on the American Library Association’s list of most banned authors of the 21st century.
• Toni Morrison (b. 1931) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1993. She is a novelist, editor, and playwright proud to be known as “a black woman writer.” Her work has drawn repeated challenges, with three of her works represented on the ALA’s list of the Top 100 Banned and Challenged Classics (Beloved, #7; Song of Solomon, #25; and Jazz, #56).
• George Orwell(1903-1950) was a British author whose works criticized abuses of power and totalitarianism. His novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four have both appeared frequently on challenged and banned book lists.
• Katherine Paterson (b. 1932) lives in Vermont and has won multiple awards for her work but has also often found her work the target of censorship. Her Newbery Medal-winning Bridge to Terabithia landed on the ALA’s Top 10 Challenged Books of the Year list as recently as 2003, 26 years after publication. 
• John Steinbeck (1902-1968) was an American novelist, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath (which holds third place on the ALA’s list of most-banned classics). He also received the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception."
• Mark Twain (1835-1910) was a novelist, humorist, travel writer, and lecturer. His classic novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are among the most widely banned or censored books in the United States.
• Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) was an American novelist known for his satirical science fiction works with strong humanist themes. His works have been challenged on political, religious, sexual, and social grounds. Slaughterhouse-Five has evoked strong feelings since its publication, leading to frequent censorship attempts.

Emcee for "Evening Without" is Allen Gilbert, executive director of the ACLU-VT. Gilbert will put the readings into their historical context, weaving together the story of challenges to -- or bannings of -- the works.