Roxane Gay is taking a stand!!
The Bad Feminist author has decided to pull her upcoming book How to Be Heard from being published by Simon & Schuster imprint TED Books over the controversy surrounding Milo Yiannopoulos!
As you’ve probably heard, the famous publishing company sparked outrage after it was revealed their imprint Threshold offered the Internet troll a $250K deal. Smh. Leslie Jones has even blasted S&S for their decision for making a deal with the man who relentlessly harassed her on social media over the summer.
Related: Greenpeace Protestors Climb A CRANE To Defy Trump
Well, Roxane is taking it one step further by completely pulling the project originally scheduled to be released in March of 2018.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, she shared:
“I can’t in good conscience let them publish it while they also publish Milo. So I told my agent over the weekend to pull the project.”
And even though Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy promised Yiannopoulos’ book would not “incite hatred, discrimination or bullying,” the influential author was no longer interested in doing a deal with them.
She fully explained:
“When the announcement about Milo’s book first came out, I was relieved because I thought I didn’t have a book with Simon & Schuster and tweeted something to that effect. Then I remembered my TED Book and that TED is an imprint of Simon & Schuster. I was supposed to turn the book in this month and I kept thinking about how egregious it is to give someone like Milo a platform for his blunt, inelegant hate and provocation. I just couldn’t bring myself to turn the book in. My editor emailed me last week and I kept staring at that email in my inbox and finally over the weekend I asked my agent to pull the book.
Though TED Books and Threshold are vastly different imprints, they both reside within Simon & Schuster and so I guess I’m putting my money where my mouth is. And to be clear, this isn’t about censorship. Milo has every right to say what he wants to say, however distasteful I and many others find it to be. He doesn’t have a right to have a book published by a major publisher but he has, in some bizarre twist of fate, been afforded that privilege. So be it. I’m not interested in doing business with a publisher willing to grant him that privilege. I am also fortunate enough to be in a position to make this decision. I recognize that other writers aren’t and understand that completely.
The editor of TED Books is Michelle Quint. I don’t think Michelle is an employee of Simon & Schuster. She works for TED. She is, from my experience thus far, smart, kind, patient, and committed to putting good books into the world.”
And offered up one final reminder:
I guess the news out. Everythjng I need to say is in my statement. I can afford to take this stand. Not everyone can. Remember that.
— roxane gay (@rgay) January 25, 2017
In response, TED Books released their own statement:
“Author Roxane Gay has asked to cancel her planned TED Book, titled How to Be Heard. We’re disappointed that we won’t get to put this important book out into the world, but we respect and accept her decision.”
We really hope Roxane can find a home for her book somewhere soon!
[Image via Roxane Gay.]
Related Posts
-
Categories
