Stephen King is many things: bestselling author, screenwriter, musician, actor. And now he can add “most banned author in U.S. schools” to his resume.
According to new data released by PEN America, a nonprofit organization that defends and celebrates free expression through the advancement of literature and human rights, 87 of King’s books were banned 206 times in school libraries across the U.S. during the 2024-25 school year.
PEN America’s “Banned in the USA: The Normalization of Book Banning,” released October 1, tracks 6,870 instances of books being temporarily or permanently pulled for the 2024-25 school year in 87 school districts across 23 states. PEN America counts any instance of a book pulled off a shelf as a ban. Florida is the top state for book banning for the third year in a row, followed by Texas and Tennessee. PEN America said books have been targeted by groups with “anti-woke, anti-DEI, and anti-LGBTQ+ stances.”
Reasons often cited in the report for pulling a book include LGBTQ+ themes, depictions of race, and passages with violence and sexual violence. PEN also notes a disturbing trend that is intensifying: Thousands of books have been taken off shelves in anticipation of community, political, or legal pressure rather than in response to a direct threat.
“Censorship pressures have expanded and escalated, taking on different forms — laws, directives, guidance that sow confusion, lists of books mislabeled as ‘explicit’ materials, and ‘do not buy’ lists,” Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, told the Associated Press. “A disturbing ‘everyday banning’ and normalization of censorship has worsened and spread over the last four years. The result is unprecedented.”
The top five banned books were “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, “Sold” by Patricia McCormick, “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven, “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo, and “A Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah J. Maas.
Some of King’s books that have been banned include “The Gunslinger,” “The Running Man,” “Carrie,” “Four Past Midnight,” “The Stand,” and “It.”
“[King’s] 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 said. “Some districts—in being overly cautious or fearful of punishment—will sweep so wide they end up removing Stephen King from access, too.”
King responded to the news on X with indignance and his usual dry wit.
I am now the most banned author in the United States–87 books. May I suggest you pick up one of them and see what all the pissing & moaning is about? Self-righteous book banners don’t always get to have their way. This is still America, dammit.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 26, 2025
Last month, King was a guest on the Velshi Banned Book Club on MSNBC to discuss his work and the book ban crisis in the U.S. with host Ali Velshi. King urged kids who can’t find banned books in their schools to “run to the grown-up library or bookstore to find out what it is they don’t want you to read.”
Watch the full conversation below.
Take action
Alarmed by the escalating attempts to censor books? Here are six steps you can take now to protect the freedom to read.
- Follow news and social media in your community and state to keep apprised of organizations working to censor library or school materials.
- Show up for library workers at school or library board meetings and speak as a library advocate and community stakeholder who supports a parent’s right to restrict reading materials for their own child but not for all
- Help provide a safety net for library professionals as they defend intellectual freedom in their communities by giving to the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund.
- Educate friends, neighbors, and family members about censorship and how it harms communities. Share information from Banned Books Week.
- Join the Unite Against Book Bans movement and visit our Fight Censorship page to learn what you can do to defend the freedom to read in your community
- Become an ALA Supporter and help us fight for libraries and everyone’s freedom to read.
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