Author Kirsten Miller’s Advice for Fighting Book Bans (Exclusive) [Video]

Author Kirsten Miller’s work feels more timely now than ever.

Speaking with PEOPLE at the New York Celebration of Reading on Nov. 20, Miller, who published her latest novel Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books in June, noted that the book’s subject matter is on many people’s minds right now.

“We knew book banning was happening long before it became a national topic of discussion,” Miller said. “I have good friends whose books have been banned for reasons that I, at the time, still continue to find rather ridiculous … it was just sort of a crisis that we saw unfolding in slow motion.”

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books

is a satirical novel set in a small Georgia town that follows the title character who, intent on removing books she doesn’t see fit from libraries, sets up her own library in front of her home. But then someone in town begins replacing Lula’s books with banned titles, including classics, LGBTQ+ romances …