This summer, Christopher M. Finan, executive director, National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), will retire after a celebrated career in the service of free expression and First Amendment rights, reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.

“NCAC board president Emily Knox noted that Chris has been a leader in the fight for free speech for more than four decades, defending the rights of authors, booksellers, librarians, readers, and students,” he says.

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Before joining NCAC in 2017, Finan served for many years as president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), and before that as executive director of the Media Coalition, a trade association that defends the free speech rights of producers and distributors.

In May, Finan will receive the Authors Guild Foundation Award for Defending Free Speech and Expression.

“Chris Finan is stepping down in the midst of an unprecedented attack on the freedom to read,” Albanese tells me.

Author: Christopher Kenneally

Christopher Kenneally hosts CCC's Velocity of Content podcast series, which debuted in 2006 and is the longest continuously running podcast covering the publishing industry. As CCC's Senior Director, Marketing, he is responsible for organizing and hosting programs that address the business needs of all stakeholders in publishing and research. His reporting has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Independent (London), WBUR-FM, NPR, and WGBH-TV.
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