77. Rake
Sep 14, 2026 · 52 min · 13 segments
Welcome back WITS listeners! Join Elle and Kay as we discuss Rake by Nicole Parker. WITS Smut Scale: 🐙🐙🐙.5 More discussion on censorship starts off our smutverse news this week. For the PEN…
Sep 14, 2026 · 52 min · 13 segments
Welcome back WITS listeners! Join Elle and Kay as we discuss Rake by Nicole Parker. WITS Smut Scale: 🐙🐙🐙.5 More discussion on censorship starts off our smutverse news this week. For the PEN…
Last week, we talked about an author censoring her own books to remove explicit sex scenes.
This week, PEN America published a new report about how censorship is affecting public libraries across the country.
The 16-page report, titled Out of Circulation, Expanding Censorship in Public Libraries, declares, quote, "...public libraries nationwide are reaching a breaking point." It details local political figures overriding policies of democratically elected library boards, disproportionate bans on LGBTQ plus stories, as well as gender identity and sexuality, and even physical assaults on librarians.
That's insane.
Yep.
Local libraries nationwide have long been safe havens for the freedom to read and finding joy and comfort in books, Casey Meehan, PEN America's Freedom to Read director, told The Guardian.
Increasingly, they are censorship battlegrounds.
When libraries become targets, communities suffer.
The consequences extend to authors whose books are taken off of shelves and readers who are denied access to stories and information.
Yeah.
It's sad.
And it's just I know a couple of librarians like in my personal life.
Yeah.
And they are just such champions for knowledge and information.
And the fact that like it's scary that information is being like.
It's
being erased.
Yeah.
I don't like it.
I don't either.
And thus, links to support PEN America and their efforts to stop book bans will be available in our show notes.
Last week, we talked about an author censoring her own books to remove explicit sex scenes.
This week, PEN America published a new report about how censorship is affecting public libraries across the country.
The 16-page report, titled Out of Circulation, Expanding Censorship in Public Libraries, declares, quote, "...public libraries nationwide are reaching a breaking point." It details local political figures overriding policies of democratically elected library boards, disproportionate bans on LGBTQ plus stories, as well as gender identity and sexuality, and even physical assaults on librarians.
That's insane.
Yep.
Local libraries nationwide have long been safe havens for the freedom to read and finding joy and comfort in books, Casey Meehan, PEN America's Freedom to Read director, told The Guardian.
Increasingly, they are censorship battlegrounds.
When libraries become targets, communities suffer.
The consequences extend to authors whose books are taken off of shelves and readers who are denied access to stories and information.
Yeah.
It's sad.
And it's just I know a couple of librarians like in my personal life.
Yeah.
And they are just such champions for knowledge and information.
And the fact that like it's scary that information is being like.
It's
being erased.
Yeah.
I don't like it.
I don't either.
And thus, links to support PEN America and their efforts to stop book bans will be available in our show notes.
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