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ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Banned Together
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.ashleyperez.com/
CITY: Columbus
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NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 322
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born March 5, 1984; daughter of Terry and Patricia Ray; married Arnulfo Pérez (a mathematics education professor); children: Liam Miguel, Ethan Andrés.
EDUCATION:Bard College at Simon’s Rock, A.A., 2002; University of Texas, Austin, B.A., 2004; Indiana University, Ph.D. (comparative literature), 2014.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Educator, translator, writer, and editor. Houston intermediate school district, Houston, TX, English and ESL teacher, 2004-07; Bloomington Montessori School, Bloomington, IN, teacher, 2007-08; Indiana University, Bloomington, teacher of English, comparative literature, and Spanish; Ohio State University, Columbus, visiting assistant professor, 2014-16, assistant professor, beginning 2016, coordinator of World Literature program, 2016–, director of undergraduate studies, 2023–, associate professor of comparative studies. Board member, EveryLibrary Institute.
AWARDS:Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, and Américas Award, all 2016, all for Out of Darkness.
WRITINGS
Contributor to anthologies, including Here We Are: 44 Voices Write, Draw, and Speak about Feminism for the Real World, edited by Kelly Jensen, Algonquin (New York, NY), 2017; Teaching the Narrative of Mexicana and Chicana Writers (“Options for Teaching” series), edited by Elizabeth Martínez, MLA, 2021; and Acts of Resistance: Subversive Teaching in the English Language Arts Classroom, 2nd ed., edited by Jeanne Dyches, Brandon Sams, and Ashley S. Boyd, Myers Education Press, 2023; and to periodicals and websites, including ALAN Review, Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingüe, Children’s Literature, Knowledge Quest: Journal of the American Association of School Librarians, Modern Language Notes, and NPR.
SIDELIGHTS
Ashley Hope Pérez is a longtime educator and an author of young-adult novels as well as conscientious nonfiction. Raised in East Texas, she pursued studies that culminated in a doctorate from Indiana University. In the Department of Comparative Studies at Ohio State University, she is an associate professor, coordinator of the World Literature program, and director of undergraduate studies. She also directs the university’s Unite to Read Project, for which she helped secure a $500,000 Mellon Foundation grant.
Pérez’s first novel was inspired by her experiences teaching at Chávez High School in Houston, Texas, for three years. “It wasn’t long before my students—aware of my aspirations to ‘one day” write a novel—began to recommend … that I write the book that they were looking for,” Pérez mused in a guest post for Stacked. “It turned out to be the greatest of many gifts they gave me, and my students were both my inspiration and the first readers for What Can’t Wait.” She added, “For What Can’t Wait, I listened to my students as they talked through the latest crisis, listened to their gossip in the hallways during passing period, cherished the stories and notes they shared to help me develop the story.”
What Can’t Wait tells the story of seventeen-year-old Marisa Morena, who lives in a primarily Mexican American Houston neighborhood and struggles to balance the demands of her home life with her dreams of entering the engineering program at the University of Texas at Austin. Voice of Youth Advocates reviewer Francesca Goldsmith praised the novel, noting that the author “breathes credible and engaging life into her calculus-loving protagonist and the assorted adults and youth with whom she copes.” Courtney Jones, writing in Booklist, had a similar reaction: “Pérez creates a relatable character who is unraveling under the pressure to support her family at the expense of her dreams.” School Library Journal reviewer Georgia Christgau concluded, “This strong first novel makes an excellent choice for populations with large numbers of immigrant students.”
Pérez’s second novel, The Knife and the Butterfly, contains elements of the paranormal, while also being inspired by a real event in Houston that involved gang members. The protagonist of the story is fifteen-year-old Salvadoran Martín “Azael” Arevalo, who wakes up in a locked cell after a fight in a Houston park between his gang, MS-13, and rival gang Crazy Crew. Unable to remember the events that landed him in juvenile detention, Azael starts to realize something is not right about his lockup. He is not allowed to make a phone call and is not given a lawyer. On top of that, he is assigned to secretly observe a white seventeen-year-old girl named Alexis “Lexi” Allen. He knows she is connected to what happened to him the night he was arrested, and he struggles to remember the details before Lexi goes to trial. “The story progresses as Azael tries to not only remember what happened that night but also to understand what brought him there and how Lexi is related to all of it. The narrative reflects this progression by alternating between ‘now’ and ‘then’ from Azael’s point of view,” related a contributor to Book Smugglers.
Writing a guest post for Book Smugglers, Pérez discussed how her teaching experiences influenced her second novel: “It used to drive me crazy when my students—many of whom had very messy, difficult lives—just up and disappeared for stretches of time without notice. And sometimes they never came back; that was the worst. As a writer, though, a lot happened for me when I started to imagine the ‘why’ behind those absences.” She continued, “In fact, Azael—who is a high-school dropout—was inspired as much by the students I never taught as by the many I did teach. I couldn’t stop thinking about the middle-school students and freshmen who disappeared long before the senior English classes I taught. Who were these students who fell between the cracks? Writing The Knife and the Butterfly gave me a chance to imagine one answer.”
Several reviewers praised the novel’s gritty and unflinching portrayal of the characters and their lives. “Ultimately, The Knife and the Butterfly is a raw, violent, unrestrained story of two kids in trouble. Borrowing its own metaphor, this book is both knife and butterfly: it cuts deep and it’s uncompromisingly graphic but also compassionate and hopeful,” related the Book Smugglers reviewer. “Because we’re exposed to both a variety of time periods in both Azael and Lexi’s lives, as well as a variety of mediums—the straight-forward narrative, the journal entries, news articles—there’s not a lag in the pacing. This is a relatively short book at just over 200 pages, and not a word nor a scene feels wasted. It’s edgy and it’s powerful, and it will appeal to reluctant readers,” noted a reviewer for Stacked. “Based on a true incident, this work of fiction is gritty, sad, and not for the faint-hearted,” asserted Laura Woodruff in a review of the novel for the Voice of Youth Advocates. Booklist reviewer Daniel Kraus called The Knife and the Butterfly “an uncompromising look at two characters most readers would otherwise look away from.” The author “creates two nuanced characters in Azael and Lexi, both of whom could have easily become caricatures,” observed a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
When asked by Jessica Sinn of Shelf Life what made her decide to dabble in the realm of paranormal fiction with her second novel, Pérez responded: “It wasn’t as simple as a decision, exactly. Yes, there is a ‘paranormal twist’ to The Knife and the Butterfly, but much of the novel (say ninety percent) is occupied with the gritty world Lexi and Azael live in on the fringe of mainstream society in Houston. The paranormal was a bit of a surprise to me, too.” Pérez continued: “That is to say, I didn’t set out to incorporate paranormal elements in my novel; they became necessary for me to change the rules of my characters’ world just enough so that they could make different decisions … so they could have the second chances that are built into the system for many middle-class teens.”
Pérez’s third novel, Out of Darkness, begins with a true event: the explosion of the New London School in East Texas in 1937, the deadliest school disaster in American history. The story then retraces events before the explosion, following Mexican American teen Naomi as she reluctantly leaves her grandparents in San Antonio to accompany her twin half siblings to live with their scarcely present Caucasian father in New London, an East Texas oil-boom town. Naomi and her siblings struggle to fit into the segregated, racially divided community, finding friendship with African American Wash, a senior at the “colored” school. As Naomi and Wash become closer, they begin a secret, forbidden romance. As their love grows, it puts them in conflict with entrenched color lines and family expectations—and places them in the path of the worst in human nature. Readers know that the tragedy that opened the novel looms, but while the novel has much darkness, it also focuses on the hopes of finding a way out. The novel alternates in perspective, with chapters from the perspectives not only of Naomi and Wash, but also from the twins, their stepfather, and a group of White high-school students known as “The Gang.”
Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Damien Cave claimed that Pérez’s “layered tale of color lines, love and struggle in an East Texas oil town is a pit-in-the-stomach family drama that goes down like it should, with pain and fascination, like a mix of sugary medicine and artisanal moonshine. I actually had to close the book at one point to seek respite with Facebook. And puppies. When I dove back in a few days later, it was hard not to marvel at the book’s potency.” A contributor to Bookreporter stated: “After savoring every bit of Out of Darkness, I have a feeling my library card will have a lot more check-outs featuring Ashley Hope Pérez in the coming months.” The same reviewer suggested: “If there’s one book you read this year, let this one be it.” Booklist contributor Magan Szwarek declared that the “elegant prose and gently escalating action will leave readers gasping for breath at the tragic climax.” In a review for School Library Journal, Ruth Quiroa wrote: “Set against the backdrop of an actual historical event, Pérez’s young adult novel gives voice to many long-omitted facets of U.S. history.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews labeled the novel “a powerful, layered tale of forbidden love in times of unrelenting racism.”
[open new]Pérez served as the editor of the affirmative young-adult anthology Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights. Counting herself among the most frequently banned authors in the United States since 2021, Pérez sought through this volume to unite authors with similar experiences seeing their works taken off shelves owing to “controversial” content, to let readers perceive the injustice of book bans and how powerful discomfiting content can be. An opening piece delivers the facts about the rise of book banning, and essays recount standing against a parent in protest and the vile experience of receiving hate mail based on banning. Contributors in genres ranging from poetry and memoir to fiction and comics include Nikki Grimes, Isabel Quintero, Ellen Hopkins, Traci Sorell, Kyle Lukoff, Maia Kobabe, Kelly Jensen, Robin Stevenson, Brendan Kiely, and Padma Venkatraman. Back matter includes recommended reading lists, online resources, and means of engaging in activism, with Pérez profiling teens who are working across the nation to preserve the freedom to read.
“Together these diverse contributors’ voices form a potent whole,” remarked a Kirkus Reviews writer, who declared that Banned Together offers “an empowering and critically timely blueprint for action.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer deemed the anthology “necessary,” as the various pieces “echo the resilience and determination” needed to speak up about topics such as homophobia, misogyny, and rape culture. The reviewer hailed the collection as both a “call to action and a form of protest” bound “to inspire hope and unity.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2011, Courtney Jones, review of What Can’t Wait, p. 60; February 1, 2012, Daniel Kraus, review of The Knife and the Butterfly, p. 89; September 1, 2015, Magan Szwarek, review of Out of Darkness, p. 108.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, April, 2011, Karen Coats, review of What Can’t Wait, p. 388.
Entertainment Close-Up, January 18, 2016, “Lerner Publishing Group Gets Michael L. Printz Honor and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor.”
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2011, review of What Can’t Wait; January 1, 2012, review of The Knife and the Butterfly; June 1, 2015, review of Out of Darkness; January 1, 2025, review of Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights.
New York Times Book Review, November 6, 2015, Damien Cave, review of Out of Darkness, p. 32.
Publishers Weekly, January 13, 2025, review of Banned Together, p. 58.
School Library Journal, May 1, 2011, Georgia Christgau, review of What Can’t Wait, p. 120; February, 2012, Sam Bloom, review of The Knife and the Butterfly, p. 130; June 1, 2015, Ruth Quiroa, review of Out of Darkness, p. 128.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2011, Francesca Goldsmith, review of What Can’t Wait, p. 66; April, 2012, Laura Woodruff, review of The Knife and the Butterfly, p. 62.
ONLINE
Ashley Hope Pérez website, https://ashleyperez.com (June 29, 2025).
Bookreporter, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (September 9, 2015), review of Out of Darkness.
Book Smugglers, http://thebooksmugglers.com/ (February 8, 2012), “Guest Author & Giveaway: Ashley Hope Pérez on Inspirations & Influences,” and review of The Knife and the Butterfly.
Chick Lit Cafe, http://loonachicklit.wordpress.com/ (February 10, 2012), author interview; (August 14, 2015), author interview.
Lee & Low website, https://www.leeandlow.com/ (December 2, 2016), “The Diversity Baseline Survey.”
Ohio State University website, https://comparativestudies.osu.edu/ (June 29, 2025), author profile.
Shelf Life, http://www.utexas.edu/opa/blogs/shelflife/ (February 14, 2012), Jessica Sinn, author interview.
Stacked, http://www.stackedbooks.org/ (February 17, 2012), review of The Knife and the Butterfly; (November 6, 2012), “Ashley Hope Pérez on Why Diversity Matters in Contemporary YA Fiction.”
When I taught English at César E. Chávez High School on the southeast side of Houston, many of my students were convinced that they hated to read and write. My goal was to help them connect to books that would change their minds. Those conversations were the first reason that I—as a white woman—became passionate about stories that center Latinx lives. Learning with them and many other amazing readers, including my sons Liam Miguel and Ethan Andrés, continues to shape my vision of what it means for Latinx readers find themselves—and their community—represented responsibly in the pages of the books they read.
All readers deserve to encounter stories that speak to their lived experience and to their imagination. I believe in writing that reckons with the uniqueness and diversity of lives lived in any given community, whatever the background of the author. I also believe in the importance of making #OwnVoices central in YA and children’s literature. Please check out We Need Diverse Books for more resources.
What else? I grew up in East Texas near where my novel Out of Darkness takes place, but I’ve lived outside of Texas for as long as I lived there. I have been a serious student all my life. In 2014, I completed a PhD in comparative literature at Indiana University where I focused on Latin American literatures, and now I am an associate professor teaching world literatures at The Ohio State University. I love being silly with my sons, making collages out of old print materials, taking walks while blowing bubbles, baking, and playing word games like Puns of Anarchy.
For event or author visit inquiries, use this form, or contact my wonderful booking agent at How Now Booking.
If you are a student working on a project, please look for the many interviews I have done, most of them available online or through your library. I love to interact with readers, but it’s not a good use of my time to answer questions that I’ve already answered somewhere else. Thank you for understanding!
Here are some awesome schools, programs, and organizations that have shaped my path: Bard College at Simon’s Rock, The University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University Bloomington, ACE (an Americorps program), and The National Writing Project. These days, I am especially grateful for the advocacy of the National Coalition Against Censorship, EveryLibrary, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Ashley Hope Pérez
Associate Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and World Literature Program Coordinator
she/her
perez.390@osu.edu
Areas of Expertise
Latin American and Latinx literature
Narratology and narrative ethics
Youth culture and literacy practices
Young adult and children's literature
Literary free speech
World literature
Education
Ph.D in Comparative Literature, Indiana University
Ashley Hope Pérez is a literary scholar, novelist, youth advocate, and educator. Across these areas, she explores the ethical implications of how we tell, read, mediate, and interpret narratives. Her recent book of literary criticism, Deformative Fictions: Narrative Ethics and Cruelty in Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature (2024), considers how difficult works of fiction disrupt readers’ attempts to make sense of narrated cruelty, what we can do in response, and how these uncomfortable encounters matter for our understanding of narrative ethics.
As one of the most frequently banned writers in the United States since 2021, Pérez uses her insights and experiences to advocate for students and their right to learn, grow, and access diverse literature. Her anthology Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights (2025) brings together banned writers to share their experiences, inform readers about the works of literature disappearing from library shelves, and empower them with ways to fight back. Her newly designed course, CS 4021: Banned Books and the Cost of Censorship, fulfills the GE Citizenship for a Just and Diverse World theme. In 2024, she secured a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to fund the Unite to Read Project at The Ohio State University.
URP is an innovative, two-year initiative to engage the university community and the public in efforts to expand access to literature and engage communities in meaningful discussions about books and ideas. It brings together university experts, community advocates, and a network of partner organizations to develop high-quality educational materials and public programming. Through virtual programming, URP highlights both the literary significance of books facing removal from libraries and the broader implications of censorship. These initiatives include author discussions, and a multi-week virtual institute designed to provide training, material resources, and funding to support creative initiatives that promote access to literature. Anchored in creativity, education, and collaboration, URP fosters transformative action in support of young people’s right to read. To learn more about URP events and programming, please complete the URP interest form: bit.ly/4gTK10K.
For more information about the epidemic of book-banning and censorship in the U.S. and opportunities to act, visit https://linktr.ee/ashleyhopeperez.
Service
Board member, EveryLibrary Institute (2025–present)
OSU Senator, representing Arts and Humanities (2023–present)
Director of Undergraduate Studies (2023–present)
Member, Senate Honorary Degrees Committee (2023–present)
Member, Project Narrative Core Faculty Coordinating Committee (2022–present)
Coordinating Committee Chair, Comparative Literature Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization (2017–present)
Coordinator of the World Literature program (2016–present)
Arts and Sciences representative, University Teacher Education Council (2023–2024)
Member, Advisory Committee for Executive Dean of Arts and Sciences Search (2018–2019)
Publications
Literature
Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights (2025, edited anthology)
Out of Darkness (2015, novel)
The Knife and the Butterfly (2012, novel)
What Can’t Wait (2011, novel)
Literary Criticism
Deformative Fictions: Narrative Ethics and Cruelty in Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature (2024, Theory and Interpretation of Narrative Series, OSU Press)
“Navigating Narrative Ambiguity in Ana Castillo’s The Mixquiahuala Letters.” Teaching the Narrative of Mexicana and Chicana Writers. Ed. Elizabeth Martínez. Options for Teaching Series, MLA, 2021: 158-165.
"Learning Unbounded: Emancipatory Education in Daniel José Older's Shadowshaper Fantasy Series,” Children’s Literature 48 (2020): 124-152.
“Images, Self-Narration, and Radical Pragmatism in Simone de Beauvoir’s Les belles images,” Modern Language Notes 133.4 (2018): 1070-1098.
“Decentering Whiteness and Monolingualism in the Reception of Latinx YA Literature,” co-authored with Patricia Enciso. Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingüe 33.5 (2017): 1-14.
Essays (Selected)
Foreword, Acts of Resistance: Subversive Teaching in the English Language Arts Classroom, edited by Jeanne Dyches, Brandon Sams, and Ashley S. Boyd, 2nd ed., Myers Education Press, 2023.
“‘Young people have a right’ to stories that help them learn,” NPR.org (December 14, 2022). https://www.npr.org/2022/12/14/1142428557/ashley-hope-perez-on-out-of-darkness-book-ban
“Defending Youth Access to Diverse Literature in the Face of Book Banning,” The ALAN Review 49.3 (Summer 2022): 16–19.
“Resisting the Censor Without and Within: School Librarians as Defenders of Youth Access to Diverse Literature,” Knowledge Quest: Journal of the American Association of School Librarians 50.4 (May/June 2022): 34–39.
Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights
Edited by Ashley Hope Perez, illus. by Debbie Fong. Holiday House, $19.99 (304p)
ISBN 978-0-823-45830-1
* Featuring 15 authors and illustrators, including Nikki Grimes, Kyle Lukoff, and Traci Sorell, this necessary anthology--comprising fiction, memoir, poetry, comics, essays, and more--equips teens with resources to rally against book bans and fight for the freedom to read. Stories told through varying lenses recount such personal experiences as, in "O-Town Blues," Brendan Kiely's standing against his mother as a teenager protesting book bans, and, in "Our Whole Radical Anatomy," Kelly Jensen's receiving hate mail, which she describes as "having your life's work reduced to a count of profanities." Authentic and raw prose and poetry render an educational safe space for readers "who persist when cowards try to erase stories and communities from libraries"; echo the resilience and determination it takes for books and people to tackle difficult topics surrounding misogyny, rape culture, and homophobia; and assert that bannings eliminate "declarations of existence" and the "framework for adulthood." Concluding with ample resources such as extensive recommended book lists and examples of what readers can do to support the ongoing fight against book bans, this anthology acts as a call to action and a form of protest, using the power of words to inspire hope and unity.
Ages 12-up. (Mar.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights." Publishers Weekly, vol. 272, no. 2, 13 Jan. 2025, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A828299938/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4cee7119. Accessed 9 June 2025.
Pérez, Ashley Hope BANNED TOGETHER Holiday House (Teen None) $19.99 3, 4 ISBN: 9780823458301
Sixteen prominent writers for young people offer teens a comprehensive picture of what's at stake when books disappear from schools and libraries.
Effectively combining essays, graphic narratives, and short stories, this anthology offers young adults the tools they need as they advocate for their right to read. Maia Kobabe lays the groundwork with graphic representations of book censorship by the numbers, highlighting the exponential increase over the last several years. The subsequent section, "Book Ban FAQs," provides important background knowledge and common language. A recurring theme is the power of books to help us realize we're not alone in the circumstances we face. Elana K. Arnold's autobiographical "The Things, the Things That Happened, the Things That Happened to Me" is a heart-wrenching example, cutting through the silence of rape culture. Isabel Quintero and Ellen Hopkins muse on knowledge as power while Traci Sorell takes on the erasure of Native peoples from history and literature. Kyle Lukoff connects book censorship to efforts to erase problematic history. Kelly Jensen's "Our Whole Radical Anatomy" introduces readers to the legalities of book censorship. Robin Stevenson touches on the effects of self-censoring. Brendan Kiely's and Padma Venkatraman's short stories offer fictionalized accounts of teens affected by censorship efforts. Editor Pérez introduces readers to teens around the country who are taking action to ensure their freedom to read and provides tips, reading suggestions, and other resources. Together these diverse contributors' voices form a potent whole.
An empowering and critically timely blueprint for action. (select sources)(Anthology. 13-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Perez, Ashley Hope: BANNED TOGETHER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A821608425/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=26e0836d. Accessed 9 June 2025.