Rick Wartzman's "Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath' " reopened an ugly episode in America's cultural life when it was published last month.

The subtitle tells the story: As the novel's popularity grew in 1939, officials in the California county where the book was set took it upon themselves to pull it from the library without any clear authority to do so.

Only mayors in Alaska can do that, right?

As a publicity stunt, the clueless guardians of morality enlisted a farm worker to burn a copy for newspaper photographers, oblivious to the comparisons to Nazi Germany.

The mentality of repression, long a deadly strain in American society, continues to rage on, hence the annual need for Banned Book Week, a program of the American Library Association that kicks off Saturday in Chicago when Judy Blume, Lois Lowry and other children's authors read from banned books.

The library association launched the observance in 1982 when it started releasing lists of books that were challenged in school and public libraries.

The American Civil Liberties Union's local chapter marks the occasion here Oct. 2 with a variety program of words, dance and music. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is co-sponsor.

The acts are:

Comedy troupe The Absolute Pitts; local theater mainstay, actress Helena Ruoti; dance company Attack Theatre; Carolina Loyola-Garcia, an artist who works in video, photography and dance; and Sugar Daddy and the Big Boned Girls, billed as America's "favorite lounge act."

The banning of movies will also be discussed.

The free program is at 7 p.m. in the library lecture hall, Oakland. Call 412-681-7736.

The most challenged book of 2007 was "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, the association said.

It's a kids' book about two male penguins who care for a penguin egg, based on the true story of two such birds at the New York Central Park Zoo who reared a female chick.

Apparently two daddies and no mommy is an offensive family tableau to some human parents, and numerous complaints to schools were lodged.

Among the top 10 titles most challenged last year were such old standards as "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier, and "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris (Related story "My Generation: Book for kids that addresses a loaded word -- hate").

The Web site www.ala.org/ contains more information.

• Poet Paula Bohince launches a new season of the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg's Written/Spoken Word Reading Series at 7 p.m. next Tuesday in the campus coffeehouse. A Greensburg native, she's the author of "Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods" (Sarabande Books, $14.95). The series will be held the third Thursday of the month with local and national writers during the school year and is free. Details: 724-836-7481.

• Seton Hill University's Lynch Lecture Series season opens Oct. 2 with Benjamin Ajak, author of "They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky," at 7:30 p.m. in Cecilian Hall on the Greensburg campus. As a child, Ajak survived the 2000 unrest in Sudan and fled as part of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" exodus. Tickets are $10. Call 724-830-4626 to order.

• Point Park University kicks off its poetry reading series Oct. 22 with Sheryl St. Germain at 9 p.m. in Lawrence Hall on the Downtown campus. It's free. The author of both poetry and essay collections, St. Germain directs the graduate writing program at Chatham University.

• Maya Angelou news: She's written her first collection of original essays in 10 years, "Letter to My Daughter" (Random House, $25).

• Marc Nieson, writer, filmmaker and writing instructor at the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham University, has won the $1,000 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest presented by Carve magazine for his work "The Last Hours of Pompeii."