HUCKLEBERRY JIM Author Adam Nelson Joins EVERYLIBRARY LIVE! For BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2026

​As Huckleberry Jim approaches publication on October 6, author Adam Nelson will join John Chrastka, founder and Executive Director of EveryLibrary, for a special EveryLibrary Live! Banned Books Week 2026 conversation examining books, readers, censorship and the freedom to read.

It is an especially fitting conversation for Huckleberry Jim. Set in 1991 and inspired by Nelson’s own experience touring a two-man production of Huckleberry Finn to schoolchildren, the novel places Twain’s most contested work inside another American moment of argument over race, language, censorship and what young people should be allowed to encounter.

The conversation will go beyond individual book challenges to larger questions: What do we lose when books become something people are encouraged to fear rather than explore? What happens when writers begin anticipating censorship before a book is even published? And what kind of culture around books and reading are we creating for the next generation?

Chrastka brings a remarkable perspective to that discussion. In addition to founding EveryLibrary, he is a longtime library trustee and advocate, a former Director for Membership Development at the American Library Association, and was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker.

EveryLibrary’s complete Banned Books Week 2026 programming can be found here:

https://www.everylibrary.org/bannedbo...

Huckleberry Jim publishes October 6, 2026, during Banned Books Week.