Ocean Vuong Instagram – This week marks the 5 year anniversary of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous being in the world. I never imagined this book would have the life it does. But a book is nothing without the people who shepherd it into the hands of readers—the most crucial of these being teachers and librarians.
It’s therefore with great sadness that I woke to news that On Earth has been completely banned in Conroe,Texas in its recent wave of censorship. A local teacher close to the matter:
“I’m not sure if y’all are aware, but Conroe ISD has banned Ocean Vuong’s book On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. It is not allowed in the libraries or the classrooms. The district banned it using an informal library review committee, so the public was never given notice or a chance to respond.”
If you’re familiar with a LGBTQIA center or independent literary or community organization near or in Conroe, please let me know. I want to send them free copies of my books so that people who want them can find them.
In a country whose legal precedents include the obscenity trial of Ginsberg’s Howl and many others, it is hard to imagine we are still here. But fascism is a weather that returns with the seasons and at a time where American funded bombs have destroyed every university in G@za, when books left behind by refugees are being burned, when queer and trans rights are being decimated monthly, I am also not surprised that acts of brazen erasure are occurring everywhere. I will do whatever I can to fight this. I have worked too hard, survived too much, to be silenced now.
cover photo: @samcontis
#happypride | Posted on 05/Jun/2024 20:38:44
