Maureen Corrigan understands when you read and review books for a living, people will have their opinions.
"I have maybe 40 chances to review a book (in a year). We can't read everything. I think we're afraid of any judgment these days," Corrigan said.
Corrigan is NPR's longtime book critic and Fresh Air contributor. She appeared before a live audience at Wilkes University's Dorothy Dickson Darte Center last month during the university's fourth annual LitFest celebration.
She was invited to participate in a live recording of a podcast called The Beautiful and Banned, a nod to the title of F. Scott Fitzgerald's highly-banned 1922 novel "The Beautiful and Damned." The podcast was started by two Wilkes creative writing faculty members.
"It has become, for us, a love letter," explained Jessica Goudeau, co-host and nonfiction faculty member at Wilkes. She also wrote the recently New York Times-reviewed book "We Were Illegal."
"(It's a love letter) to writing, to books, to literature, to librarians, teachers, professors. So many people are involved in the written word, trying to tell stories to others."
"Look at the bestseller list. Look at what's being reviewed. At least 60 percent of the fiction I hear about or get has to do with race, class, income inequality, A.I. or climate change. Socially-engaged fiction. We are living in that time," Corrigan said, adding that those types of books are more likely to be challenged or banned.
Corrigan says that thousands of books are targeted for banning in the United States each year. However, she notes that this is not the only fraught time in literary history. She pointed out other tumultuous times in the publishing world, including in the 1930's. She said the reason for that is during both times fiction offerings can be described as socially engaged.
"Look at the bestseller list. Look at what's being reviewed. At least 60 percent of the fiction I hear about or get has to do with race, class, income inequality, A.I. or climate change. Socially-engaged fiction. We are living in that time," Corrigan said, adding that those types of books are more likely to be challenged or banned.
Podcast co-host Christine Renee Miller, an actor and part of the playwriting faculty at Wilkes, suggests that simply talking about book banning is a good way to engage readers to think more critically.
"I'm a little bit optimistic that it's firing people up," Miller said. "I want to encourage people to read what they don't like or don't agree with. We need to learn how to have disagreements and talk about those things."
Sponsored by the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing as part of the program’s June residency, LitFest seeks to bring authors and other book fans to Wilkes-Barre. Corrigan hopes aspiring writers who hear the podcast won't be discouraged.
"It really does speak to how powerful stories are. Book banning speaks to how powerful books are," Corrigan said.
The episode of The Beautiful and Banned featuring Maureen Corrigan hasn't yet been released. Previous episodes are available at www.beautifulandbannedpod.com.
