BURNING ISSUE
To raise awareness about proliferating book banning and censorship in American schools, as well as to raise money to support PEN America’s opposition, Margaret Atwood, Penguin Random House and creative agency Rethink recently joined forces to make a unique limited edition of one, a fireproof edition of Atwood’s regularly banned . Dubbed The Unburnable Book, the edition was designed by Noma Bar, made from fireproof materials by print-and-bindery master craftsman Jeremy Martin and produced in Toronto by graphic arts specialty and bookbinding atelier The Gas Company Inc. The finished volume was auctioned in June by Sotheby’s, raising $130,000 for PEN America’s anti-censorship work. That organisation recorded thatbetween 1 July 2021 and 31 March this year there were 1,586 known instances of individual books being banned in public schools, affecting 1,145 unique book titles._
