The fight for the freedom to read will be won or lost in courtrooms and legislative bodies across the country. With that in mind, Penguin Random House (PRH) hired Rosie Stewart as senior manager, public policy.

“I’m not a registered lobbyist, but I think it’s fair to say that I’m the government relations or government affairs team,” Stewart says.

Rosie Stewart

Only a month into the new job, Stewart told SLJ that she had yet to have a “typical day,” but she expects her day-to-day responsibilities to include vetting and hiring state lobbyists, identifying “legislative champions,” working with national coalitions and local organizations to ­coordinate efforts and ­messaging, and rapid response to censorship when needed.

Stewart, who was most recently the manager of grassroots communications for the ALA’s Public Policy and ­Advocacy Office, was surprised to learn that such a position didn’t already exist at the publishing house.

“Most large corporations would have that,” she says. “But I don’t think necessarily that publishing has had an acute need for [it]. It’s just an important thing to have in terms of making sure that you’re keeping legislators and regulators informed on your industry. Beyond that, obviously, in this particular moment, it’s urgent, because a political attack—which is what we’re facing, a coordinated political attack by well-funded groups—requires a political response.”

Stewart believes one of the reasons libraries and schools have become a political target is because they didn’t have the defenses built up, and attacks on those institutions previously had no political consequences.

“So part of this is me trying to make it clear to these politicians that there are political consequences for targeting this group of people,” she says.

Stewart is buoyed by the commitment she sees at all levels of PRH and from others engaged in this fight. “I feel very confident in the fact that we can make change happen, because I know how many dedicated people there are—from the library world, from the education world, from social justice organizations—who are committed to pushing back against this assault on free expression.”

Playing offense

While there is plenty of book-banning legislation to fight against, right now Stewart will focus on moving freedom to read legislation forward.

“There is important offensive work to be done,” she says.  States that are not "pro book banning," she says, are still experiencing censorship at the local level. “So to the extent that we can muster our support in those states to get state freedom to read laws passed like they have in Illinois and Maryland. We can still have an impact on helping those teachers, librarians, students, and parents at the local level, and help protect the materials in their library.”

While Stewart's work won't be limited to states friendly to the intellectual freedom cause, she says starting with this "fertile ground" will, she hopes, help build momentum.

“What I'm interested in—and the other part of my role—is in building the infrastructure that we need and using that initial momentum to build that infrastructure. We know that the vast majority of book banning is happening in places like my home state of Texas, [as well as] Florida, and Iowa. But playing in those places that are probably less friendly to us is going to take more resources, and it's just a little bit of a longer-term play.”

She’s also coming into a somewhat difficult situation with a vast network of grassroots organizations already at work.

“We want to support the work that's happening at the state and local level," she says.  

"There are so many people doing such good work; we're just trying to be that convener, right? We don't want to come in and trump them or impose our vision,” adds Stewart, who must straddle the line between not stepping on the work being done by others and pushing for a coordinated message and strategy.

“It's something that we continually try to figure out, because you can't enforce how other organizations are going to talk about these things,” she says. “Every organization has its own membership, and they have their own prerogative. However, we're now in the moment where everybody kind of needs to find their lane and find their part to play.”

There’s room for everybody, she says, but “part of our challenge is, how do we find the right foot on messaging, and then, how do we share with people?  Again, you can’t enforce message discipline, but you can have a table for people to have those discussions, and you can tell people what is most effective and what has been working. That's the table that we're trying to build with a whole lot of other people. But there's not an endpoint to that. It's an iterative game, and you have to keep talking.”

Protecting librarians

Individual librarians can help by signing up for United Against Book Bans to know the threats and getting involved with the ALA, AASL, and state professional organizations, says Stewart, who knows the value of a good librarian.

“In the second grade, my teacher told me I was allowed to ask three questions in a day, after that, I got kicked out and sent to the school library,” she says of her time growing up in San Antonio. “My school librarian, Peg Cosgrove at Huebner Elementary—we spent a lot of time together, hanging out. She would recommend books.

“So, I just say thank you to all those school librarians out there, because you're making a safe place for kids to be curious and explore. Thank you. We're trying to make sure that your work is protected. That's what this whole fight is about.”