Amanda Jones on Banned Librarians

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

This week, to draw attention to Banned Books Week and to stand in solidarity with publishers, authors, and all industry professionals who fight to keep diverse voices on library shelves, Write-minded features guest Amanda Jones, an educator and librarian whose book, That Librarian, is necessary reading. Amanda shares her more than two-year journey of being bullied, harassed, and smeared because she dared to stand up for diverse books and diverse voices. The phenomenon of canceling librarians or get them fired is not singular, and Amanda Jones’s story serves as a stark reminder about what’s at stake in our country right now. She draws attention to efforts to defund libraries and shares why representation in literature matters so much. Listen and take action.

And check out Grant’s Substack about another kind of banning—banning the story we want to tell—in this week’s Substackin’.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Amanda Jones is a 23 year educator: she’s a former 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts teacher and she is a certified K-12 librarian, certified 1-8 elementary teacher, certified school administrator, and certified reading specialist. She is the current President of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians and her library was the winner of the 2019 LLA James O Modisette Award for top middle school library programming in Louisiana. She is also the author of a riveting, harrowing, and necessary memoir, That Librarian.