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Tuesday, November 10, 2026

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Jodi Picoult gives away 600 copies of banned novel at Salt Lake Book Festival

The author surprised attendees at West High School with copies of "Nineteen Minutes."

AI-generated illustration: an outdoor amphitheater with lawn seating at dusk, not a real place or event
AI-generated illustration: The Utah Ledger · Original graphic · The Utah Ledger

Salt Lake City

Jodi Picoult gave away 600 copies of "Nineteen Minutes" during her Saturday evening appearance at West High School, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The novel was removed from Utah public schools earlier this year. [1]

Picoult told attendees they could keep the book or pass it to a teenager who might benefit from reading it. The giveaway came during her headline appearance at the first Salt Lake Book Festival. [1]

The festival held author panels and hosted independent booksellers and artists at The Gateway. Picoult’s talk marked the final U.S. tour stop for her latest novel, "Hollow Bones." [1]

Sources

2 cited, none of them a government record. Paragraphs carry [n] links to their sources.

  1. The Salt Lake Tribune: Author Jodi Picoult gives away 600 copies at Salt Lake Book Festival sltrib.com
  2. The Salt Lake Tribune: She was ‘furious’ when Utah banned her novel from public schools. Now, she’s headlining the first-ever Salt Lake Book Festival. sltrib.com

This story was written by AI from the report by The Salt Lake Tribune, which has the full story. How we write stories.

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