Laurie Halse Anderson in conversation about banned books
On October 5, 2026, the National Library of Sweden, Swedish PEN, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, Rabén & Sjögren, and the Astrid Lindgren Company organized a Banned Books evening at the National Library in Stockholm. During the event, a prerecorded conversation with Laurie Halse Anderson was shown, in which she talked about book censorship in the United States and the new Swedish “Samizdat” edition of Astrid Lindgren's "The Brothers Lionheart".
About Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. Held in the last week of September or first week of October, the annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.
Banned Books Week Sweden is organized by the Dawit Isaak Library in Malmö and Swedish PEN, with the aim of raising awareness and spreading knowledge about freedom of expression and banned books.
Read more about Banned Books Week
The Brothers Lionheart in a “Banned” Edition
In connection with Banned Books Week 2025, The Brothers Lionheart — Astrid Lindgren’s timeless story about the struggle between good and evil — was published in Sweden in a special edition featuring texts about freedom of expression and banned books. The edition also includes information about how The Brothers Lionheart was distributed through secret networks in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s, and concludes with an afterword by Laurie Halse Anderson, the 2023 recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
Read more about the “Samizdat” edition of The Brothers Lionheart (in Swedish)
A darkly radiant realism
Laurie Halse Anderson is one of America’s foremost writers for young adults. Her breakthrough novel, Speak, was published in 1999 and has been translated into many languages and adapted for film. In her richly expressive novels for young people she gives voice to the adolescent experience with sometimes brutal honesty. The yearning for love and belonging is a recurring theme for Anderson.
Discover Laurie Halse Anderson