Liberating Lit

The Liberating Lit podcast is a limited-run project from Kelly Jensen, a national leader on the topic of book bans, censorship, libraries, and mental health. Liberating Lit aims to connect listeners with incredible people across the country doing interesting things at the intersections of pro-literacy and pro-library work. You’ll hear from national leaders in raising awareness of book censorship, as well as on-the-ground advocates doing important work on their local library board of directors.

Liberating Lit intends to be both an archive of these stories and an opportunity to build community. It seeks to provide ideas and inspiration for those interested in advocacy work and unsure where to begin, while also helping re-fill the cups of those who’ve been doing the work for a long time and need the reminder of how important what they do truly is.

Tune in for two 10-episode seasons, running Fall 2026 through Spring 2027.

A woman with brown hair, wearing glasses and a striped shirt, smiling outdoors near a wooden fence with greenery.

Meet Your Host, Kelly Jensen

Kelly Jensen is a Senior Editor at Book Riot, the largest independent book website in North America. She covers all things young adult literature and has written about censorship for over 10 years. She is the author of three critically-acclaimed and award-winning anthologies for young adults, including (Don't) Call Me Crazy, which won a Schneider Family Book Award honor and Body Talk, which has been banned in several school districts across the country.

In 2024, Kelly was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her anti-censorship work. She earned  similar recognition in 2022, when she was named a person of the year from Publishers Weekly and a Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune. She has twice earned commendation from the American Association of School Librarians for her anti-censorship work. She has had the honor to present keynote talks at several state library association conferences, as well as to speak on a panel about censorship in Muenster, Germany. Kelly is currently a Fellow with the Unite to Read Project, where the Liberating Lit podcast project idea was born.

Prior to Book Riot, Kelly was a public librarian for children, teens, and adults in several libraries in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin.

You can find more of Kelly’s work at her personal newsletter, Well-Sourced.