Banned Nonfiction Books Double in Public Schools, Erasing Authentic Stories & Histories; PEN America, May 7, 2026

PEN America; Banned Nonfiction Books Double in Public Schools, Erasing Authentic Stories & Histories

"In its latest report on book bans in public schools, PEN America today documents a doubling of censorship of nonfiction on subjects from history and health to general knowledge, including biographies and memoirs. The targeting of titles about real events or people underscores “an embrace of anti-intellectualism” within the book banning movement, according to the new report Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans.

The report offers detailed analysis of the content of the 3,743 unique titles that were removed from school libraries and classrooms from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. Over this same period, PEN America tracked 6,780 total instances of bans across 23 states.

Twenty-nine percent of the unique titles banned last school year were nonfiction. In addition, approximately 13% of all unique titles fell into the educational/informational genre – texts primarily written for students for reference or learning purposes and covering a range of subjects. Overall, the rise of banned nonfiction and educational titles exposed a new casualty in the campaign to suppress and restrict learning, which goes hand in hand with efforts to undermine public education and librarianship itself, the report states.

“This latest trend shows an embrace of anti-intellectualism, undermining public knowledge by  devaluing education and expertise,” said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program. “It is another example of how censorship sweeps broadly, leading to removals of all kinds of books, in its efforts to sow fear and distrust in our public education system.”

As book bans in public schools have exploded since 2021, PEN America, the writers and free expression organization, has documented the crisis nationwide, counting more than 23,000 bans over the period.

The increase in nonfiction bans over 2024-2025 is especially troubling as reading scores and literacy rates decline while the report notes that nonfiction “is the gateway to literacy” and essential for young people to make sense of the world and form their own opinions. Books in this category often deal with personal, artistic, historical, and educational topics – just this month, Utah added the memoir of Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted from the street at age 11 and held for 18 years, to its list of books banned statewide."