Cat Winters has made a name for herself by digging up America’s forgotten truths. Her novels are laced with ghost stories—not just of the supernatural kind, but of the silenced, the marginalized, and the misrepresented. In The Steep and Thorny Way, for instance, Winters reimagines Hamlet in 1920s Oregon, a state then steeped in racism and the influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Her characters confront bigotry, violence, and the myth of purity—forces that haven’t vanished, only changed costumes.
It’s no coincidence, then, that Winters is now on the front lines of Oregon’s fight against book bans. As co-leader of the Oregon chapter of Authors Against Book Bans, she’s thrown her weight behind Senate Bill 1098—legislation that aims to protect school libraries from political interference and prevent censorship based on race, sexuality, or ideological discomfort.
“The stories being targeted are often the ones that reflect my own work—histories people would rather forget,” Winters said during her testimony at the Oregon Capitol. “But erasing those stories doesn’t protect children. It isolates them.”
Through her writing, Winters has always warned readers about the dangers of historical amnesia. Now, with the Freedom to Read bill, she’s not just writing the past—she’s defending the future.
She wants Oregonians to know that SB 1098 (Oregon’s Freedom to Read bill) is nearing the finish line, but there is still work to be done. On June 9th, there will be a third reading, and the Bill seems to have support for passage, but it is not done yet. You can watch the bill right here.
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Measures/Overview/SB1098
Here’s what I would like Hillsboro Herald readers to know:
1. Book challenges and book bans are happening right here in Oregon.
2. Local organizations, such as the Oregon chapter of Authors Against Book Bans, are working to protect the freedom to read.
3. Anyone can contribute to ensuring that books remain accessible to students.
According to the Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse 2024 Report published by the State Library of Oregon, “66% (100) of challenged items” in Oregon last year were “about, by, or centering 2SLGBTQIA+ folks.”
The top three most challenged books in Oregon in 2024, Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin, Flamer by Mike Curato, and Heartstopper Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman, all involve 2SLGBTQIA+ themes.
For the full list of books challenged in Oregon in 2024, as well as info about whether the books were retained, restricted, or removed, please see p. 16 of https://slo.oregon.gov/ld.
Along with other members of the Oregon chapter of Authors Against Book Bans, I have been actively supporting SB 1098, which would prohibit “discrimination when selecting or retaining school library materials, textbooks or instructional materials or when developing and implementing a curriculum.”
The Herald went deeper with Winter’s to get the story behind the story.
1) Cat, what is happening next week in Salem on this SB 1098? What is this Bill, and why should people care if it passes or not?
CAT: The Oregon House is scheduled to vote on SB 1098, Oregon’s Freedom to Read bill, on Monday, June 9. The bill “prohibits discrimination when selecting or retaining school library materials, textbooks or instructional materials” and “prescribes requirements for the removal of library materials, textbooks and instructional materials.”
People should care about SB 1098 because it’s an anti-discrimination bill that will protect the freedom to read and the freedom of speech. According to the Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse 2024 Report, challenged items in Oregon schools in 2024 were disproportionately by and/or about people from protected classes. A staggering 66% of challenged items were by and/or about LGBTQIA+ people.
People also need to understand that supporters of school vouchers are using book challenges to attack the credibility of public education. In Texas, one of the states with the most book bans, Governor Greg Abbott signed a school voucher bill into law in May. If people in Oregon want to keep schools free and accessible for all children, they need to stand up to a movement that’s working to dismantle our free and accessible education. Supporting SB 1098 will help.
2) Why is this important to you, and how did you get involved with this Bill and in the issues surrounding book banning?
CAT: I’m the author of five novels for teens and a picture book biography. I was shocked when, in 2021, some of my colleagues started sharing info online about people showing up at school board meetings to demonize their books, many of which had already been on shelves for several years, like Ashley Hope Pérez’s 2015 novel, Out of Darkness. Book bans certainly aren’t a new concept, but this felt different and very much an extension of the anger directed at public schools during the 2020 COVID closures, as well as an extension of the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. One of my kids was still in high school at the time, so I was also viewing all of this as a parent.
In April 2024, I learned that Basic Rights Oregon and the ACLU of Oregon were forming a coalition to fight book bans in this state. I reached out to Authors Against Book Bans, a brand-new organization at the time, and asked if we had any Oregon chapter leaders yet. Without hesitating, I offered to be a state leader. Earlier this year, along with my co-leader, Martha Freeman, I started traveling to Salem with other Authors Against Book Bans members to be a part of the larger team advocating for SB 1098.
3) What are the very strongest arguments against book banning?
CAT: First, freedom of speech is a First Amendment right. Second, librarians and educators are trained professionals dedicated to choosing books that are engaging, relevant, and age-appropriate. We can and should trust them.
Third, book challenges are expensive, the costs often running “in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars” (source: https://www.usatoday.
4) You’re here in Washington County – how is our County doing on this issue of book banning? Are there Cities or districts in Oregon where book banning is happening more than in other areas?
CAT: Washington County has fared somewhat better than other regions of the state. This past school year, the Oregon coast made news for book challenges and bans, most notably in Tillamook, Seaside, and Florence. Grants Pass removed two books from their high school’s library after people who didn’t even have kids in the district challenged them. According to the aforementioned Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse 2024 Report, “There were challenges in 20 of Oregon’s 36 counties, focused in western and northeast Oregon.”
There’s a concern that book challenges are being underreported, especially in schools that don’t have certified teacher-librarians. I urge any Oregon educator encountering a challenge to report it through the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Center (ncte.org/resources/ncte-
5) I am getting to know your work – I see these sorts of themes play out in some of your work, such as silencing voices and repression of thought. Did you have work banned or stories you wrote at any time in your life that were marginalized or denied the light of day? What is it that drives you on this issue – what happened to you or in your life to make you want to fight so hard on this issue?
CAT: I am extremely fortunate in that none of my books have been challenged; at least not in a public way that I’m aware of. But yes, repression of thought and the silencing of voices do play a role in several of my books, especially in my novel The Cure for Dreaming. I think that comes from growing up as a closeted bisexual teen during the homophobic 1980s. I struggled quite a bit with my sexuality, starting in middle school, but I didn’t have any books to help me understand what I was feeling. I felt like I could never fit into any of the boxes expected of me.
I’m fighting so hard to protect the freedom to read because kids shouldn’t have to grow up feeling there’s something wrong with themselves, and book bans send the horrifying message that some people should indeed be hidden. I have several LGBTQIA+ family members, including a trans loved one, and I’m also fighting for them, for my marginalized friends, and for all the young readers who deserve to see themselves and their families represented in books.
I can’t imagine not fighting for the freedom to read. It would go against everything I’m made of as a lifelong reader and writer . . . and as a person living in a world full of diverse human beings with countless stories to tell.
Find out more about this important author and community member at:
Cat Winters / C.E. Winters (she/her)
Author of books for children, teens, and adults & poetry
Co-leader, Oregon chapter of Authors Against Book Bans
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Oregon has lost its mind. Smh, why would these books be in school? Go to the public library for this propagandists garbage if you’re so inclined.
Conservatives love to silence free speech and intellectual educated work
People do not trust you or the school systems to keep books age appropriate. That is why issue on book bans began in the first place.
“People do not trust you or the school systems to keep books age appropriate.” Being too lazy of a bumpkin to parent or too embarrassed or ignorant to have honest discussions with your children isn’t an excuse to ban books wholesale.
“why would these books be in school?” To educate the kids who want to read them. “Go to the public library for this propagandists garbage.” It’s “propagandist,” which you’d know if you visited the library more often, and it isn’t as if you book banners are big fans of public libraries, either.
Cat it 100% correct: “Librarians and educators are trained professionals dedicated to choosing books that are engaging, relevant, and age-appropriate. We can and should trust them.” Being the school district or town that bans books only makes you the school or town that young people flee as quickly as possible—with a diploma if they’re lucky, or onto the street if they aren’t. Fortunately, the educators and librarians of Washington County have won more than they’ve lost from the backward-ass, corn-pone, straw chewers who’d try to rip books from kids’ hands and toss them onto the burn pile with that season’s slash and a few bottles of detergent.
It isn’t perfect, and Eastern Washington County kids certainly have a better time of it than their Western and southern counterparts, but it’s steadily improving as more people realize that keeping books out of view doesn’t hide the truths that kids inevitably learn. Many thanks to the teachers and librarians who continue to make these books readily available in the face of staggering naiveté.
Very well said- excellent.