The Freedom to Read Foundation Awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Festival’s Innovator’s Award

February 23, 2023
Chicago, IL

The Freedom to Read Foundation Awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Festival’s Innovator’s Award 

The Los Angeles Times has announced the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) will receive its LA Times Book Festival 2022 Innovator’s Award, which “spotlights efforts to bring books, publishing and storytelling into the future.” 

“The organization is as important and relevant today as it was at its inception in 1969,” says Julia Turner, Deputy Managing Editor of Entertainment and Strategy for the Times. “We honor its continued fight against book bans and its mission to protect all Americans’ right to read and access information.”

“We are grateful to the Los Angeles Times for recognizing the Freedom to Read Foundation's efforts to ensure everyone’s right to read freely as guaranteed in the First Amendment,” responds FTRF President Peter Coyl. “With unprecedented attacks on librarians and increasingly brazen efforts to take books away from schools and children, the mission of the Foundation is more important now than ever. We hope this award will serve as a clarion call for others to join in the fight to preserve one of our most precious freedoms.”

“In awarding the Innovator’s Award to the Freedom to Read Foundation, the Los Angeles Times honors the Foundation’s 50 plus years of advocacy, education, and litigation on behalf of the freedom to read, as well as the vision of its founding director, Judith Krug, who fiercely believed in the right of the reader to read and the role of the library in supporting our democracy and individual liberties,” says FTRF Executive Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone. “We thank the Los Angeles Times and look to a future where we can secure every person’s right to read what they want, without the government telling them what to read.” 

You can read the full article and list of Los Angeles Times 2022 Book Award recipients here: www.latimes.com/about/pressreleases/story/2023-02-22/los-angeles-times-book-prizes-to-honor-james-ellroy-and-freedom-to-read-foundation

The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting and defending each person’s First Amendment right to read and the right of libraries to collect -- and individuals to access -- information. Affiliated with the American Library Association, staff, trustees, members, and ALA liaisons to the Foundation achieve its mission through First Amendment education, litigation, and advocacy. Visit www.ftrf.org to learn more.