Books After Dark Brings America’s Most Banned Author to America’s Most Banned State

George M. Johnson’s new memoir hits shelves on Nov. 10. The very next night, the author of America’s most banned book will be in Salt Lake City, in America’s most book-banned state. You can’t make this stuff up.

Johnson, whose memoir-manifesto All Boys Aren’t Blue was the most banned book of 2024 according to the American Library Association, headlines the third Books After Dark, Weller Book Works’ adults-only banned-book fair, on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Their new book, And If I Die Before I Wake, picks up where the first left off, covering 15 years of an HIV diagnosis, loss and the book bans themselves. And for the first time, Books After Dark is leaving the bookstore behind for Sugar Space Arts Warehouse.

“It was getting a little crowded here in our bookstore,” says Claire Corwin, Weller’s children’s buyer. The first event packed in about 150 people. This time, UAF Legacy Health’s sponsorship means a main stage with 175 seats, more community partners and more programming. “We never would have been able to have this space and this opportunity to make it what we want it to be,” Corwin says.

So why 21+? Michael Sanders of UAF Legacy Health jokes that it’s so everyone can have a drink. Events coordinator Hillary Thacker confirms that’s part of it. The bigger reason? A grown-up room makes space for what gets censored outside books, too: HIV, chronic illness, drag and human sexuality. “Utah’s an abstinence-only state,” Thacker says, so organizers keep that information legal and aimed at the adults who make choices for kids.

Utah tops the list for banned books, with nonfiction increasingly on the chopping block. But all that fear says something: These stories have power. “We’ve got to read. We’ve got to educate ourselves. We’ve got to educate our kids,” Corwin says.

Doors open at 6 p.m., and the vendor lineup alone is worth the trip. There’s Crowne Books, the only Black-owned bookstore downtown, which fundraised its way into a brick-and-mortar shop and celebrates its grand opening that same week. There’s The Legendarium, a trans-owned bookstore, plus a leatherworker and blacksmith making leather book goods, along with drag story hour and buskers on a smaller stage.

Programming kicks off at 7 p.m. The main event is Johnson in conversation with Bernie Williams, an informal historian of Salt Lake’s gay community who lived through the AIDS epidemic, moderated by Russell Roots, director of the Utah Queer Film Festival. Next comes a banned-books panel featuring Johnson; Thomas Ford of the ACLU of Utah, who sued St. George over its drag show ban (and won); and Liz Pitts of the Read Between initiative. The night closes with a preview of the next documentary from Kim A. Snyder, the filmmaker behind The Librarians.

Pulling it off took three very different people. Corwin started Books After Dark after a partner group got cold feet over a drag story hour and decided the whole thing was too political, a saga SLUG covered back in June. Thacker, who uses they/them pronouns, came on during a chaotic summer when both of Weller’s owners were out and built the operation from the ground up. Their secret? Just keep talking to people. Sanders, a lifelong LGBTQ+ health and HIV advocate, met Thacker through the leather community. One coffee later, he was in, and he fronted the money, “mainly cash.” Corwin hopes people leave feeling lifted. Thacker wants them to see who their community actually is.

Buy tickets early since seating is limited. General admission, a $45 admission-plus-book tier and a very limited VIP tier with a book and meet-and-greet with Johnson are available at wellerbookworks.com. Come for the cocktail. Leave with a reading list and some new friends.

Read more about local bookish events:
Am I a Book? A Festival Asks, With Beer
Habibi Means Beloved: Moudi Sbeity’s Journey from Evacuee to Equality Pioneer

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