Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories.
Yesterday Hachette Book Group employees in New York City and Boston staged walkouts to protest Grand Central Publishing’s acquisition of Woody Allen’s memoir, Apropos of Nothing, and to express solidarity with Dylan Farrow, Allen’s adopted daughter, who has long alleged Allen abused her as a child. After Grand Central announced Allen’s memoir on Monday, Ronan Farrow, who published Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators with Little, Brown last year, announced he would cut ties with the publisher, reasserting his support for his sister and criticizing Hachette’s “lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse.” Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch has so far stood by Grand Central’s decision, stating in an interview with the New York Times, “Grand Central publishing believes strongly that there’s a large audience that wants to hear the story of Woody Allen’s life as told by Woody Allen himself. That’s what they’ve chosen to publish.” According to Publishers Weekly, the walkouts included staff from at least six of the corporation’s imprints: Grand Central, Basic, Hachette Books, Forever, Orbit, and Little, Brown.
A new episode of Oprah’s Book Club aired on Apple TV Plus, featuring Oprah Winfrey in conversation with Jeanine Cummins, the author of American Dirt. In a break from previous episodes, Winfrey and Cummins were joined by three panelists: Esther J. Cepeda, Julissa Arce, and Reyna Grande. Winfrey announced the special format earlier this year, after numerous writers critiqued American Dirt for cultural appropriation and stereotyping of Mexico and Mexican immigrants, and called out industry leaders—including Winfrey—for elevating it. In her introduction to the conversation, Winfrey said she wanted to “lean in” to the criticisms without “having to cancel, to dismiss, or to silence anyone.” The panelists reiterated the problems with Cummins’s book and the widespread racism within the publishing industry, and challenged Winfrey on the absence of Latinx writers from her book club selections. (Associated Press)
In more Oprah’s Book Club news, a spokesperson recently announced the show will not move forward with My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell as the club’s March pick. The novel has been the subject of controversy after Wendy C. Ortiz noted its “eerie story similarities” to her 2013 memoir, Excavation. Although overt plagiarism has not been found, Ortiz’s critique has broader implications: My Dark Vanessa, written by a white author, received a seven-figure advance, while publishers rejected Ortiz’s memoir on the claim that it wouldn’t sell. “It appears that once again a white woman has written a fictional experience of a subject and publishers find it more palatable, worthy, and marketable than when a writer of color writes it from lived experience,” wrote Ortiz in Gay Mag in January. (Variety)
Sarah MacLachlan has announced she will be leaving her position as president of Groundwood Books and president and publisher of House of Anansi Press. MacLachlan joined House of Anansi in December 2003, oversaw the purchase of Groundwood Books, and helped expand the combined business into Canada’s largest independent publisher.
Alison Stine critiques the prohibitive costs of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs annual conference, and reiterates the urgency of addressing systematic inequality in the literary community. (Literary Hub)
The Creative Independent offers advice on how to negotiate as a person working in the arts.
Poets Kaveh Akbar and Jane Hirshfield discuss bewilderment and how to build in a viable future. (American Poetry Review)
