Stifled Laughter: One Woman's Story About Fighting Censorship

Claudia Johnson is a nationally recognized advocate for free speech and social justice. In 1993, she was honored with the inaugural PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award, presented by Paul Newman, for her “extraordinary efforts to restore banned literary classics to Florida classrooms”—and again in the 2022 “PEN America at 100” exhibition at the New York Historical Society. She continues to fight book banning, recently helping reinstate banned books to Virginia Beach classrooms and libraries.   

Her second memoir, Hurtling Toward Happiness: A Mother and Teenage Son’s Road Trip from Blues to Bonding in a Really Small Car, was praised by the New York Times for its “quick pace and energetic dialogue that shows genuine warmth between mother and son.” Her screenwriting text, Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect—now in its fifth/Twentieth Anniversary edition—introduced the narrative theory that human connection is as essential as conflict in the stories we tell. Her civil rights documentary, The Other Side of Silence: The Untold Story of Ruby McCollum, was awarded the Gold Jury Prize at Seattle’s Social Justice Film Festival and Best Florida Documentary at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. She is a member of the founding faculty of the FSU Film School and also taught screenwriting at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. 

She has coauthored two books with her longtime writing partner, Matt Stevens—A Christmas Belle, a sequel to Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and Script Partners: How to Succeed at Co-Writing for Film & TV, now in its second edition. And their cowritten screenplays have been optioned and named finalists in multiple competitions, including Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. 

MEMOIR

5 X 8

212 PAGES

PAPERBACK

MARCH 2023

978-1-68275-349-1

Winner of the American Book Fest 2023 Best Book Award in the Current Events category

“All across the country, school boards and town councils are being hit by far right attacks on great books. When it happened in the town where Claudia Johnson was living, she stuck her neck out. A playwright, novelist, scriptwriter, and scholar steeped in literature’s classics and armed with a wicked sense of humor, Johnson couldn’t let the yahoos take Aristophanes and Chaucer away from teens who might learn as much from them as she had. 

“Her memoir, Stifled Laughter, takes you with her, moment by tense moment, on a wild ride through contentious public meetings, nerve-wracking courtroom sessions, and seeing her house burned to the ground.  

“If you don’t like the campaign to dumb down our public schools, Stifled Laughter shows you the way to defend the dedicated teachers and librarians who need you with them.” 

– Ann Medlock, Founder of the Giraffe Heroes Project, Honoring people who stick their necks out for the common good 

 

“Claudia Johnson demonstrates in lively fashion how censorship is deeply undemocratic and dangerous. That banning books is a threat not only to freedom of choice when it comes to what we read, but how we live, and can be used as a political weapon to marginalize various groups of Americans. Perhaps most important, Johnson makes clear that one simply cannot ban ideas.” 

– Laura Pedersen, bestselling author and James Thurber Award finalist 

 

“It is a very good thing for the Republic that Stifled Laughter has been republished by Fulcrum Publishing, since never in the history of that Republic have the values promoted by the book been under such critical assault. Stifled Laughter demonstrates that book-banning in a small, rural Florida community is but one manifestation of a toxic national mentality that threatens us all. More important, it demonstrates that one person’s courage and determination can make a difference in the face of what seem to be insurmountable odds. All of this could have made for a parched, didactic book, but Ms. Johnson has given us one that is as witty, funny, and light on its feet as it is important. Distinguish your day and buy this book.” 

– Charles Gaines, finalist for National Book Award and New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 books 

 

"As the battle over censorship and book banning rages on, Claudia Johnson helps us understand why it’s more important than ever to keep books on the shelves. Told with passion, humor, and an enduring love of literature, this is a must read for all book lovers.” 

– Judy Blume 

 

“The republication of Claudia Johnson's beautifully written memoir of her fight against book banning in two Florida towns in the 1980s and 1990s couldn't be more timely. It occurred during a period of intense censorship activity in schools and libraries across the country. There are differences between that struggle and the serious challenge to the freedom to read we face today. But one thing remains the same—the critical importance of the brave individuals like Johnson who stand up to the censors.”  

– Chris Finan, Executive Director of National Coalition Against Censorship