It’s 2025 and books are still being banned in the U.S.: This is the author censored the most

A new report on the banning of books in U.S. public schools has found that horror writer Stephen King was the most frequently targeted author in the 2024-25 academic year.

Released on Wednesday, PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans said it had found 206 instances nationwide of a King title being prohibited during the period between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025.

Meanwhile, Anthony Burgess wrote the most commonly banned book: the dystopian black comedy A Clockwork Orange. Burgess’s 1962 novel racked up 23 bans at public schools in the 2024-25 school year, three ahead of Jennifer Niven’s Breathless and Patricia McCormick’s Sold.

“Book banning crisis”

A non-profit that says it “stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression”, PEN America has now produced four annual reports since 2022 on what it describes as a “book banning crisis” in the U.S.

PEN America defines a book ban as “any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”

Nearly 7,000 book bans in 2024-25

The organization says it has documented nearly 23,000 book bans at American public schools since 2021, 6,870 of which were in the most recent academic year. “Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country,” PEN America said.

For the third year in a row, Florida accounted for the most book bans of any U.S. state in 2024-25, PEN America says, with 2,304. The Sunshine State was followed by Texas (1,781) and Tennessee (1,622).

The bans chiefly targeted books about race and racism, titles with LGBTQ+ themes, and those featuring sexual references or sexual violence, PEN America said.

“A full-blown attack on public schools”

“National and local groups touting extreme conservative views have played on parents’ fears and anxieties to exert ideological control over public education across the United States using consistent and coordinated tactics,” PEN America said in its latest report.

“These groups’ efforts have catalyzed censorial trends and a full-blown attack on public schools and democracy.

“This ‘Ed Scare,’ as PEN America has termed it, has produced changes at the local, state - and increasingly, federal - levels at a frighteningly rapid pace, resulting in new policies that not only diminish students’ right to read and learn, but also take away protections for educators and librarians.”

PEN America’s report highlighted the impact of the White House administration since Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term as U.S. president in January.

“Since returning to office, the Trump Administration has mimicked rhetoric about ‘parents’ rights’, which, in Florida and other states, has largely been used to advance book bans and censorship of schools, against the wishes of many parents, students, families, and educators,” the report said.

PEN America noted that executive orders issued by President Trump were “used as justification” for the removal of around 600 books from schools on military bases in July.

“In restricting discussion of transgender people and diversity, equity, and inclusion and barring schools from ‘promoting un-American ideas,’ books like ABC of Equality by Chana Ewing or several volumes from the series Heartstopper by Alice Oseman were removed from access,” PEN America’s report stated.

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