“Banned books are not a badge of honor”

Best-selling American author Jodi Picoult once said that “the loss of free speech is a very, very slippery slope” and that having two of her books banned in school districts in some US states “is not a badge of honor.”

Speaking at the Hay Festival, Picoult said she was “very lucky because at one point in my career the people who were going to buy my books weren’t in school libraries”.

But the author, who has written 30 books and sold some 40 million copies, said that’s not the case for young writers, LGBTQ writers or people of color “whose livelihood is writing for middle grade and young adult readers. They I’m in great pain.”

Picoult said her books “My Sister’s Keeper” and “Nineteen Minutes” were affected by the ban.

Some libraries and classrooms in the United States have deleted books Contains sexual content or themes of sexuality, gender identity, and race.

While some see this as censorship, others disagree. Authorities in some states, including Florida, have said they will not ban the books But restrict inappropriate and harmful material.

“I’m currently banned from school districts in about 35 states in the United States,” Picoult told Hay’s audience.

She said Nineteen Minutes, about a school shooting in the United States, was banned not because of the shooting scene: “They had no problem with it. The problem was that on page 313, I used the word ‘erection.’

Asked if it made her consider changing what she writes, she said: “It just makes me want to keep doing (what I’m doing).”

Picoult also discussed her upcoming novel Any Other Name.

This isn’t her first foray into historical fiction, but this time it’s a parallel story about contemporary young playwright Melina Green struggling to get her work recognized in New York and her ancestor Amy Emilia Bassano may—or may not—be the woman behind Shakespeare’s works.

“I felt like this was the book I wanted to write my whole life,” Picoult said.

“This is really a book about how women’s lives have changed over 400 years and how they have not changed.”

Picoult’s book is a novel, of course, but Bassano was a real-life Elizabethan woman.

Picoult does a good job of convincing Hay audiences to at least consider that Bassano did write some of Shakespeare’s works, citing various theories she encountered during her research.

The solid fact is that Bassano (later known as Emilia Lanier) was one of the first female poets to publish in England in the early 1600s.

There is also a theory that she is the dark lady of many of the Bard’s sonnets (although Picoult was not convinced).

“The truth is, I did a lot of research for this book. I’m not going to tell you what to believe, I’m just going to present you the facts,” Picoult said, later adding that she thought Shakespeare’s play might have Many people have written.

Picoult is known for his meticulous research. If she were an actress, she would certainly be an advocate of methodology.

“For me, the research was actually the most interesting part of the book because I got to live someone else’s life,” she said.

“So I’ve done everything you see in the book or everything the characters in the book do.”

The research included visits to death row in an effort to change hearts and lives with Amish families in an effort to understand the truth. Perhaps surprisingly, she said the latter was “the most challenging… They worked so hard, I never want to do it again!”

Unlike many authors, Picoult’s books are all very diverse, covering a variety of genres, including thrillers, romances, ghost stories, and historical novels.

“I’m really, really lucky. I can write whatever I want and somehow my readers will say, ‘Great!’ “A lot of writers don’t have that luxury,” she said.

“I also think a lot of writers make the mistake of chasing what they think is popular at the moment. I’ve always lived by the credo: If I write what I want to learn, then it will be… the best I can write at the time book. I will interest you as much as I do in this subject.

“I’m really a frustrated academic who doesn’t go to school anymore and just wants to learn a lot! I don’t want to write the same book twice. If I do…that’s probably when I should stop writing.