Censorship at Powell's Books

Originally published April 2025 ; last updated October 2025

Powell’s promotes “standing for free speech, especially when it is hard” — unless it’s speech from their employees.

The information on this page was compiled by the Powell's Union Anti-Censorship Committee, based on reports submitted by Powell's workers. This resource will be updated periodically to reflect new reports.

According to the Powell’s Books employee handbook:

“...[Powell’s Books] has a commitment to fight censorship at all levels....We have a social responsibility to our many and diverse customers to make all kinds of books and information available....Powell’s bookstores are an important community resource. We are committed to providing books, and we are committed to the principles protecting free speech.”

What has Powell’s leadership been doing lately to fight censorship and defend free speech?

November 2023–present: 

Powell’s workers have been subjected to discipline, “problem solving conversations,” and increased scrutiny from Powell's leadership and managers over language used in merchandising materials, product selection for displays — with additional auditing of Heritage and Identity Month displays — and even internal communications. The challenged products have ranged from socks and stickers with swear words to books about fascism, antisemitism, and Palestine. In response to worker inquiries about this increased scrutiny, the Company has cited “brand values,” previously uncommunicated merchandising expectations, and wanting to appeal to an “elevated customer.”

January 2024: 

A Powell's worker wrote a post for the Powell's blog entitled Windows and Mirrors into Palestine: Talking about Occupation with Children and Young Adults, and the blog post was featured in Powell’s Instagram Story. Soon after, the Instagram promotion was removed, and the title and content of the post were heavily edited by marketing management (Talking About Occupation with Children and Young Adults), without communicating any information to the social media coordinator, managing editor, or writer of the post. Among the edits was the removal of this text: 

"If children in Palestine are old enough to be killed by the Israeli military, then children in the United States are old enough to start grappling with these atrocities and the fact that these global injustices are funded by the country they live in."

When the worker who wrote the post asked about the changes, they were told the post was edited because it had language that went against a company value that "Everyone belongs in a bookstore."

April 2024: 

Management removed On Antisemitism from a Jewish American Heritage display without notice or explanation. Two Jewish workers curated the display. When a worker reached out, management referenced customer complaints to explain the choice, claiming that the situation in Gaza and a heightened awareness of antisemitism made the title an inappropriate inclusion in a display on Jewish heritage. 

Powell’s leadership also banned a book buyer from writing original book blurbs in an employee-only internal newsletter. Though not required, many Powell’s book buyers post monthly new release newsletters to an employees-only platform (never to be publicly used or seen by customers) to help keep booksellers in-the-know about upcoming titles. The buyer in question was reprimanded for their "voice being overly present" in their business books newsletter (particularly in regards to several book blurbs poking gentle fun at the American business model and a previously approved feature about other local businesses), and was told that they could only continue posting if they used publisher copy and none of their own writing. They chose to discontinue the project. Many other buyers, discouraged and alarmed by this level of censorship on optional, internal-only documents, also discontinued their newsletters. This has unfortunately limited an easy source of new book information for store employees.

May 2024: 

In response to the noticeable uptick in instances of censorship, scrutiny of product selection and merchandising, and tone policing of Powell’s workers’ speech (and following months of Powell’s leadership ignoring and shutting down attempts by workers to engage on these issues), workers formed the Powell’s Union Anti-Censorship Committee and began documenting censorship-related issues in the workplace. 

June 2024:

Powell’s leadership revised the Company’s Merchandising Guidelines to disallow “promoting an employee’s own personal political viewpoints, political statements, stances, hashtags or slogans.” Neither the Powell’s DEI Committee nor the workers traditionally involved in crafting these guidelines were given an opportunity for input before these changes went into effect, and despite requests from the Anti-Censorship Committee, the DEI Committee, and individual workers, what Powell’s leadership views as “political” has not been clarified.

Also during June (Pride Month): Powell’s leadership removed the following language from the Pride landing page on Powells.com: “With heightened nationwide censorship targeting LGBTQ and BIPOC authors through state laws and attacks on libraries and drag story hours, there’s no better time to celebrate the freedom to read out and read proud.” When pressed for reasons why, Powell’s leadership said the language needed to be updated for “accuracy” and “brand tone.”

July–August 2024:

Powell's leadership removed all mention of a co-sponsor for an upcoming author event after a member of the public reached out to voice concern about the organization in question. The event was for Shane Burley and Ben Lorber’s book Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism, and the organization they had enlisted as a co-sponsor was Jewish Voice for Peace Portland, the local chapter of the world’s largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization.

Also in August: after initially receiving manager approval, a gift buyer shared a list of gift items intended for Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month displays with workers on an internal platform. Powell’s leadership then reversed course on their decision and told the gift buyer they would not be allowed to purchase "Abolish ICE" stickers for the stores and instructed the worker to remove their post.

September 2024:

While in the process of curating the gift items to be carried for Native American Heritage Month, Powell’s leadership questioned whether or not a MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) sticker belonged on the display.

Powell’s leadership instructed gift buyers to begin "toning down" items they purchase for the stores that contain swear words — without concrete direction as to what specifically should be avoided. Workers were also instructed to de-emphasize these items on displays and fixtures. Some managers took it upon themselves to remove items with swear words from the sales floor entirely.

Also in September: Powell's leadership updated the Banned Books page on Powells.com to remove the themes and topics behind the recent upticks in book bans ("the more recent history of banning books that feature LGBTQ+ themes"). (Here is a report from PEN America, whom Powell’s has hired to facilitate employee trainings on freedom of speech, on the very real statistics showing the erasure of the LGBTQ+ community and of people of color through book bans.)

October 2024

Gift buyers were told to discontinue buying all items with swear words by Powell’s leadership, and were told to move all remaining items with swear words to less prominent areas of the sales floor. 

Emily Powell removed the "Ambition Is a Mental Illness" sticker from the sales floor on a rare store visit. The gift buyer who orders stickers was told they were no longer allowed to buy stickers without oversight. Management suggested that purchasing guidelines were to be created, which as of Fall 2025, has yet to happen.

December 2024:

Just a few days after the “Booksellers’ Best of 2024” list was published and emailed out to newsletter subscribers, Powell’s leadership pulled the list from the website. The list reappeared two weeks later with only 25 of the original 86 bookseller recommendations. Booksellers had been assured in the original solicitation of picks that, similar to the Staff Top 5s project in previous years, all staff recommendations would be featured on the site, though not all would be featured in store. In response to employee inquiry, Powell’s leadership offered a variety of competing explanations for the change, including a claim that the current website infrastructure would not support a list of the original size — despite the fact that it had already supported this list and lists of greater size. These explanations were also undercut by the discovery of a manager's document dividing books from the original Booksellers’ Best list into three categories: “Of Most Concern,” “Questionable,” and “Seem Harmless.” Titles deemed objectionable included many books about Palestine, but also books like Bog Myrtle, a children's fable about workers’ rights.

March 2025:

At a town-hall style conversation between employees and upper management, an employee asked owner Emily Powell about the assertion in the Brand Book that, while “we are not political,” we will always stand against censorship. Given the unprecedented swell of book challenges and bans in the nation, and the current administration’s attacks on free speech, the employee wondered about what actions Powell’s would be taking to stand against censorship. Powell said that when the company has taken action on this issue in the past, it has been in our local community (ignoring the company’s previous involvement with, and donations related to, national Banned Books Week), and that if anything comes up in our community, “we'll look into it.” She confirmed that Powell’s has no plans to be involved in anti-censorship work on a national level. 

Is this “standing for free speech, especially when it is hard?”

April 2025:

Powell’s launched a brand new website, and the Arab American Heritage Month page notably had no supporting text, despite similar pages (including the one for Autism & Neurodiversity Acceptance Month) having introductory text.

Perhaps most tellingly, Powell’s leadership chose to omit their former Commitment to Free Speech from the new Powells.com.

September 2025:

On an internal platform where booksellers are encouraged to post book-related questions and updates, a bookseller raised concerns about Charlie Kirk's upcoming book being featured on the main page of Powells.com as a "Highly Anticipated" title. Other employees weighed in on the thread, seconding that it was troubling to see Powell's actively platforming someone known for hate speech and influencing policies targeting marginalized groups (to which many booksellers belong), and voicing concerns about how this might make customers from marginalized groups feel Powell’s was no longer a safe “third place.” While the book was quietly removed from the web list, Powell’s leadership’s response to employee concerns was to delete the thread entirely and post a company-wide announcement that political debates and opinions are not appropriate at work.

When the Union raised concerns about the situation and the Company's handling of it, the head of HR quoted back lines from the employee handbook and Brand Book (linked above) to reiterate upper management's determination to carry books regardless of their content, ignoring that carrying and promoting the book are two separate things entirely (and that the primary employee concern raised was around the book’s promotion on the web list). The reply also reasserted that political speech is wholly inappropriate in the workplace, something that is not included in Powell’s Policy on Unlawful Discrimination and Harassment. No definition of what management sees as "political" was given.

How can you tell Powell’s you want them to fight censorship and defend free speech? 

Email us at community@ilwulocal5.com, and we'll pass your message along to Powell's leadership.

Let Powell's leadership know that you don’t support censorship of booksellers; that booksellers’ perspectives and opinions are a valuable part of the independent bookstore experience; and that you appreciate seeing bookseller recommendations that highlight diverse voices, racial justice, and human rights. If you visited a Powell's Books location recently, share something you particularly loved seeing — like the "Read Queer All Year!” display at the downtown store, or the number of shelf-talkers on books by Palestinian and Palestinian American authors, or something else that brought you joy. 

Many customers don’t think to leave feedback unless they’re angry about something — Powell’s leadership could use the positive reinforcement and reminder that our community values the work booksellers are doing.

Note: this is not a call for a boycott; it’s a call for solidarity!

Help us spread the word! 

Print and distribute flyers (to your friends, family, book club, coffee shop, etc.) to spread awareness about the censorship at Powell's Books and help Powell's booksellers build community solidarity! Click one of the images below for a printable PDF.