The federal court case styled Little v. Llano County is a First Amendment battle that, while certainly known locally, now is beginning to be understood on a larger scale as could be seen at a recent gala at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden in Austin.
Leila Green Little is one of seven plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit against Llano County over its removal of 17 controversial books from the public library system’s shelves and card catalog in 2021. On Friday at the Stars at Night Gala, Little was honored with the nonprofit magazine American Short Fiction’s Community Star Award.
“I was stunned and humbled when they approached me for this recognition,” said Little, who answered questions for the News this week. “The literature community as a whole--including authors, publishers, librarians, anti-censorship organizations and readers--continues to boldly cheer us on in our litigation and defense of the right to read, as our county officials demonstrate flagrant disregard of the significance of our public libraries. To have ASF unite with our ever-growing group of supporters is vindicating and gives me hope.”
