Burn This Book: Fanning the Flames Against Oppression

HarperStudio has partnered with PEN American Center to publish Burn This Book, a collection of essays about censorship and literature in response to oppression, which goes on sale May 12. Edited by Toni Morrison, the volume features an A-list of contributors including Paul Auster, Nadine Gordimer, Pico Iyer, Francine Prose, Salman Rushdie, and John Updike.

Larry Siems, director of the Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center, told BTW that the project came about when HarperStudio President and Publisher Bob Miller heard Morrison speak at the PEN Literary Gala last April. "She gave a terrific speech about writers' freedom to write," said Siems. "Bob Miller was inspired by it and approached her for the text. He thought of building a book around the idea, and approached PEN to see if we could help pull together similar material from PEN members who have spoken at other PEN events."

The result is Burn This Book, a small volume whose essays range widely in tone and subject, yet all address the common theme of freedom of expression. Morrison's contribution explains why suppressing the voice of opposition is a hallmark of dictatorships: "Authoritarian regimes, dictators, despots are often, but not always, fools," she writes. "But none is foolish enough to give perceptive, dissident writers free range to publish their judgments or follow their creative instincts. They know they do so at their own peril."

Francine Prose balks at leaden overtly political fiction and art, and instead makes a case for "something more unexpected." Pico Iyer tells of a "bright, resourceful, well-educated" trishaw driver in Myanmar, stifled in a country where intelligence is "something to be feared and can best be used by giving oneself to something other than words and ideas."

Censorship is, unfortunately, a perennial issue, but the new title has "brought together fresh material on the subject," said Siems. Although, he added, the nature of censorship has shifted somewhat since information is much more easily available online. "Now there are a lot of countries in a brute struggle over information," Siems explained. "The main battleground over free expression has shifted. When we have a medium like the Internet that allows the universal rapid dissemination of information, it ups the ante."

Siems noted that, particularly since 9/11, First Amendment rights have been challenged and eroded in the U.S. and elsewhere, and there is a pressing need for "the catch up work we need to do to protect freedom of expression, including the right to offend."

A petition to stop censorship and more information about the book is available at www.therighttoread.com. Bookstores can order Burn This Book through their HarperCollins rep. --Karen Schechner