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Ocean Vuong offers to send free copies of his book to Texas following ban
“I will do whatever I can to fight this.”
Acclaimed poet and novelist Ocean Vuong said Wednesday he wants to send free copies of his debut novel to a Texas city where the school district has banned the book.
Vuong, who was a recipient of a 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant and a winner of both the Whiting Award and T.S. Eliot Prize, wrote on Instagram that this week marks the five-year anniversary of the publication of his bestselling book, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.”
“I never imagined this book would have the life it does,” he wrote. “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. So it’s with great sadness that I woke this morning to news that On Earth has been completely banned in Conroe, Texas in its recent wave of censorship.”
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According to an index of book bans compiled by PEN America, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” was banned in Conroe, Texas in the spring of 2023.
The Houston Press reports that in November 2023, trustees of the Conroe school district changed the book review process. According to the newspaper, the change allows trustees final say on what stays or goes in district libraries or classrooms, resulting in books being removed to meet preferences for individual board members, parents, or others through “informal review” requests without public notification or buy-in.
Vuong, who lives in Northampton, asked that anyone familiar with a LGBTQIA center or a community organization near Conroe to get in touch with him, saying he wants to send free copies of his books to organizations in the area so “people who want them can find them.”
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“I will do whatever I can to fight this,” he wrote. “I have worked too hard, survived too much, to be silenced now.”
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