King on Banned Book: 'What's Wrong With These People?'

A Stephen King collection that gave Hollywood two of its most enduring films is now off-limits in Utah's public schools. Different Seasons, the 1982 book that spawned The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, has been pulled from libraries after four school districts voted to remove it, triggering a statewide ban under Utah law, per the Guardian. State code allows a book to be barred from all public schools if at least three districts—or at least two districts and five charter schools—find it contains "objective sensitive material," including content deemed "pornographic" or "harmful to minors" under Utah law.

Different Seasons joins dozens of other titles on the list, among them The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. A third novella in King's four-novella collection, Apt Pupil, was also made into a movie in 1998, though it wasn't as popular as the other two. The move lands amid an ACLU of Utah lawsuit filed in January on behalf of several authors' estates, arguing the state's book restrictions violate First and Fourteenth Amendment protections.

This isn't the first time the 78-year-old Maine writer has been caught up in a book-banning frenzy: In fact, PEN America at one point named him the most banned author in US schools, per PBS. King's response to the latest commotion, per a tweet on X: "They banned DIFFERENT SEASONS in Utah. Contains STAND BY ME and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, stories of friendship and courage. Readable by teens, too. What's wrong with these people?"