According to a PEN report, Stephen King tops the list of banned authors in U.S. schools.

NEW YORK – According to a new report on book bans in U.S. schools, Stephen King is the top author facing censorship, with states split between those enforcing bans and those trying to minimize or eradicate them.

PEN America’s “Banned in the USA,” published Wednesday, records over 6,800 instances of books being either temporarily or permanently pulled for the 2024-2025 school year. Although this number has decreased from over 10,000 in 2023-24, it remains significantly higher than a few years ago when PEN didn’t see the need for such a report.

Approximately 80% of these bans stem from just three states — Florida, Texas, and Tennessee — which have implemented or are attempting to implement laws for the removal of books labeled as objectionable. Conversely, PEN observed little to no book removals in other states like Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey, where laws restrict the power of schools and public libraries to ban books.

“It is increasingly a story of two countries,” remarks Kasey Meehan, director of PEN’s Freedom to Read program and co-author of the report. “And it’s not solely about red and blue states. In Florida, not all school districts adhered to the banning calls. There’s variation even within counties.”

PEN noted that King’s works were censored 206 times, with titles like “Carrie” and “The Stand” among the 87 affected. The most banned book was Anthony Burgess’ dystopian classic “A Clockwork Orange” from the 1960s, with 23 recorded removals. Other heavily restricted authors included Patricia McCormick’s “Sold,” Judy Blume’s “Forever,” Jennifer Niven’s “Breathless,” and several works by Sarah J. Maas and Jodi Picoult.

Common reasons for book removals include LGBTQ+ themes, race depictions, and violent or sexually violent content. A trend noted by PEN is that many books are removed preemptively due to anticipated community, political, or legal pressures rather than any direct threat.

“This functions as a form of ‘obeying advance,’” the report reads, “rooted in fear or simply a desire to avoid topics that might be deemed controversial.”

The PEN report comes amid ongoing censorship efforts not just from states and conservative activists, but from the federal government. The Department of Education ended an initiative by the Biden administration to investigate the legality of bans and has called the whole issue a “hoax.” PEN’s numbers include the Department of Defense’s removal of hundreds of books from K-12 school libraries for military families as part of an overall campaign against DEI initiatives and “un-American” thinking.

In Florida, where more than 2,000 books were banned or restricted, a handful of counties were responsible for many of the King removals: Dozens were pulled last year as a part of a review for whether they were in compliance with state laws.

“His books are often removed from shelves when ‘adult’ titles or books with ‘sex content’ are targeted for removal — these prohibitions overwhelmingly ban LGBTQ+ content and books on race, racism, and people of color — but also affect titles like Stephen King’s books,” Meehan says. “Some districts — in being overly cautious or fearful of punishment — will sweep so wide they end up removing Stephen King from access, too.”

PEN’s methodology differs from that of the American Library Association, which also issues annual reports on bans and challenges. PEN’s numbers are much higher in part because the free expression organization counts any books removed or restricted for any length of time, while the ALA only counts permanent removals or restrictions.

Both organizations have acknowledged that because they largely rely on media reports and information they receive directly their numbers are far from comprehensive. Stephana Ferrell, director of Research & Insight at Florida Freedom to Read Project, wrote in an email this week that PEN left out hundreds of recent bans in the state that have not yet been widely publicized.

The PEN report includes no banning data from Ohio, Oklahoma, Arkansas and other “red” states because researchers could not find adequate documentation. Meehan adds that PEN also doesn’t know the full impact of statewide laws.

“It’s become harder and harder to quantify the scope of the book banning crisis,” Meehan says. “In a state where a banning law is passed, we don’t have the data to know whether every school in that state had the books affected. Our data is snapshot. It’s what we were able to collect through what’s publicly reported or on websites or what journalists have uncovered.”

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AP writer Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report.