At least three different authors with ties to Alabama have made it onto the banned book list for some of their works. Harper Lee, John Green, and Suzanne Collins have all had popular books that have been either banned or challenged through the years.
Nelle Harper Lee, born in 1926, grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. She was the youngest child born to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch. Her childhood greatly influenced her fiction book, To Kill a Mockingbird, written in 1960. Lee discovered her passion for writing while in college in the 1940s. She first attended Huntington College in Montgomery, but later transferred to the University of Alabama where she wrote columns, satires, and featured stories for the university newspaper. She left the University of Alabama in 1949 to pursue her literary career in New York. Lee also wrote a few short stories and literary analysis from the 1960s through the 1980s. In 2006, she wrote a letter for O, The Oprah Magazine where she talked about her childhood and how she got started as a writer. In 2007, Lee suffered from a stroke and moved back to Monroeville, Alabama from her residency in New York. In 2015, she had Go Set a Watchman, an early draft To Kill a Mockingbird, published. Although this book was an immediate success, there were many controversies surrounding the book as people compared Go Set a Watchman to its predecessor, viewing the book as a sequel when in reality Go Set a Watchman was written before To Kill a Mockingbird. She wrote To Kill a Mockingbird after talking to publishers and editors about changes that needed to be made to Go Set a Watchman. Lee died on February 19, 2016 in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama and is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery.
Author: Harper Lee
Publication Date: 1960
Synopsis: Set in a small town in Alabama during the 1930s, this coming-of-age story follows the childhood of Jean Louise "Scout" and Jeb Finch as their father, Atticus, defends a Black man falsely accused of rape. This book was written by Harper Lee in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961.
Reason for being banned: rape and language
Young Adult author John Green graduated from Indian Springs School, outside of Birmingham, Alabama in the mid-1990s. Green grew up in Orlando, Florida. As a shy, awkward teenager, he convinced his parents to let him come to Alabama. He had family in the Birmingham area and cousins who had graduated from Indian Springs School. While attending Indian Springs, Green learned how to interact with his peers. He also discovered his love of writing during this time. His novel, Looking for Alaska, is heavily influenced by his experiences at Indian Springs. Green's wife, Sarah Urist, also attended Indian Springs. However, she was a few years younger than Green and they did not really know each other while in school. Roughly a decade later, a friend set them up on a date and they were able to reconnect. Green has written many young adult novels such as The Fault in Our Stars, which later became a popular movie.
Author: John Green
Publication Date: January 10, 2012
Synopsis: John Green's fourth solo novel and sixth novel overall tells the story of a teenage girl cancer patient who falls in love with a teen from her cancer support group. This young adult fiction novel discusses grief and love, keeping the main character at the center of the action.
Reason for being banned: Morbid plot, language, morality, sexual content
Author: John Green
Publication Date: March 03, 2005
Synopsis: John Green's debut novel heavily influenced by his time at Indian Springs School around Birmingham, Alabama won the Michael L. Printz award in 2006. The book has also been on the 2006 Top 10 Best Books List for Young Adults. This novel deals with the themes of young adult relationships, grief, hope, and meaning.
Reason for being banned: sexually explicit content, language, inclusion of drugs, alcohol, and smoking
Author of The Hunger 
Games book series, Suzanne Collins went to school at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. She graduated from the school's theatre arts program in 1980. After finishing school at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, she went on to Indiana University where she graduated as a double major in drama and telecommunications. Collins also has a master's degree in dramatic writing from New York University. She currently lives in Connecticut with her family.
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publication Date: The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009), Mockingjay (2010)
Synopsis: The Hunger Games trilogy is a post-apocalyptic dystopia set in the small nation of Panem, which is split into 12 districts. Each of the books was later adapted into a film series, with the third book being split into two full-length movies.
Reason for being banned: insensitivity, language, violence, anti-family, anti-ethic, and occult/satanic.