New PEN America report reveals Stephen King is the most banned author in US schools

It’s official – and very depressing: Stephen King is the most banned author in US schools, according to a new report on book bans.

PEN America’s "The Normalization of Book Banning - Banned in the USA 2024-2025”, published today, tracks 6,870 instances of books being temporarily or permanently pulled for the 2024-2025 school year across 23 states and 87 public school districts.

The report, which examines the climate of censorship between 1 July 2024 through 30 June 2025, states that in 2025, book censorship in the US is “rampant and common” and that “never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country”. 

The report adds: “Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide. Never before have so many politicians sought to bully school leaders into censoring according to their ideological preferences, even threatening public funding to exact compliance. Never before has access to so many stories been stolen from so many children.” 

Some 80% of the bans originated in just three states that have enacted or attempted to enact laws calling for removal of books deemed objectionable: Florida, Texas and Tennessee. 

Reasons often cited for pulling a book include LGBTQ+ themes, depictions of race and passages with violence and sexual violence.

PEN finds that an ongoing trend has only intensified: thousands of books were taken off shelves in anticipation of community, political or legal pressure rather than in response to a direct threat. 

“This functions as a form of ‘obeying advance,’” the report reads, “rooted in fear or simply a desire to avoid topics that might be deemed controversial.”

PEN America has also identified “a new vector of book banning pressure”: the federal government. 

“Since returning to office, the Trump Administration has mimicked rhetoric about “parents’ rights”, which, in Florida and other states, has largely been used to advance book bans and censorship of schools, against the wishes of many parents, students, families, and educators.” 

The report highlights that “under the guise of “returning education to parents,” President Trump has released a series of Executive Orders (EOs) mainly: 'Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling', 'Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism', and 'Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing'.”

In addition to the efforts from the White House, the Department of Education ended an initiative by the Biden administration to investigate the legality of bans and has called the whole issue a “hoax”.

The report was preceded by horror icon Stephen King taking to X and sharing: “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?” 

He added: “Self-righteous book banners don’t always get to have their way. This is still America, dammit.” 

Indeed, King’s books were censored 206 times, according to PEN, with “Carrie” and “The Stand” among the 87 of his works affected. 

Ellen Hopkins, Sarah J. Maas and Jodi Picoult were some of the other most banned authors, with 167, 162 and 62 censored times respectively.  

The most banned work of any author was Anthony Burgess’ dystopian classic “A Clockwork Orange,” for which PEN found 23 removals.  

Other books and authors facing extensive restrictions include Jennifer Niven’s “Breathless” (20), Patricia McCormick’s “Sold” (20), Malinda Lo’s “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” (19) and Sarah J. Maas’ “A Court of Mist and Fury” (18). 

The full and very alarming PEN America “Banned in the USA” report can be found here.

King, who is having a big screen year in 2025, has overtaken Agatha Christie as the most adapted author. The prolific writer’s works have been transposed to both the big screen and the small screen for decades, with more than 55 book-to-feature adaptations since 1976’s Carrie. When also accounting for TV shows and miniseries, his stories have been brought to the screens well over 100 times. 

He is also a vocal critic of Donald Trump, and recently, in a new interview with The Guardian, compared Trump’s presidency to “a horror story”.

Answering a fan question “If you had to invent an ending for Trumpian America, what would it be?”, King answered: “I think it would be impeachment – which, in my view, would be a good ending. I would love to see him retired, let’s put it that way.”

He added: “The bad ending would be that he gets a third term and takes things over completely. It’s a horror story either way. Trump is a horror story, isn’t he?”