She wanted to be judged on the merits of her work. That comes with the territory, especially with such a high-profile book. Latinx writers and critics are speaking out against Jeanine Cummins' new book American Dirt, calling its depiction of the migrant experience inauthentic and harmful. www.bu.edu. I was fortunate to have traveled to one of these countries, as a I still suggest that people read the book for themselves. ... Others took issue with the large profit Cummins stands to … Who is reading it and giving me feedback? But on the internet and beyond, controversy was brewing. That’s not how we  think about ourselves. Suarez was recently awarded first prize at the International Latino Book Awards for Best Collection of Short Stories in English for A Kind of Solitude (Willow Springs Press, 2019). On January 29, American Dirt ’s publisher Flatiron Books released a statement from its president, Bob Miller, about how they were “surprised by the anger that has emerged from members of the … Last week, that momentum came to a screeching halt. Column by Gabino Iglesias. My perspective—and I think that of most critics and most readers—is that we aren’t saying you can’t write about a person who’s different from you, who’s from a different culture. The heart of the problem is that "American Dirt" is not really a story of Mexican migrants at all. In the meantime, go read those who aren't getting backed by the hype machine. And you should listen and say, “Let me engage, let me see where I failed because obviously it’s not resonating with the community that I’m writing about.” But that’s often not their [the writers’] reaction and I think that’s where people get frustrated. But the bigger point is—there is a community of people telling you there’s something wrong with this book. ‘American Dirt’ is a novel about Mexicans by a writer who isn’t. I think stereotypes happen when you write about a black character and everything in the story is defined through the lens of the fact that they’re black. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! A December review by the Chicana writer Myriam Gurba went viral, propelled by other Mexican Americans who appeared to agree with her searing take: “American Dirt” is “a literary licuado that tastes like its title.”, Not only did the book traffic in stereotypes and falsehoods about Mexican culture, many said, but it also packaged those tropes for a non-immigrant audience through the fetishizing lens of “trauma porn.”, “While some white critics have compared Cummins to [John] Steinbeck,” Gurba wrote, “I think a more apt comparison is to Vanilla Ice.”. And also some of the names and details felt like stereotypical telenovela, soap opera. We asked Cummins to … She had long struggled with the best way to tell a story about experiences she had not lived herself, she said, and she never meant for “American Dirt" to become the definitive novel on Mexican immigrants. We believe inclusion and diversity are directly tied to artistic excellence—we don’t separate the two. Inside the Beltway Current Issue. The more she is attacked, the more I feel sorry for Jeanine Cummins — who wrote American Dirt because she cared. Facing calls and boycotts, several booksellers set to host the author pulled out at the last minute. Cummins, who began working on the project seven years ago, said she initially sought to open “a back door into a bigger conversation about who we want to be as a country.” She conducted years of research about immigration, including multiple trips to the border and Mexico, and her proposal landed her a seven-figure contract and a movie deal. Gil Caldwell (GRS’55, Hon.’59), Robert Trump (DGE’68, CAS’72), New Scholarship at MET Seeks to Draw More People of Color into the Wine and Beverage Industry, Joachim Maître Taught at BU for 30 Years, BU’s Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Policy. Required fields are marked *, Pioneering Research from Boston University. I give the benefit of the doubt to writers that they have good intentions. guest; I was welcomed, stayed with family, and immersed in culture. It’s funny how people talk about censorship. Students can find additional information in the Undergraduate Student Guide and Graduate & Professional Student Guide. Suarez: Yes, but also any type of writing when it gets into culture and the way that an audience reads it. As of early on Thursday morning, the novel was listed at No. Some people can get personal, they can make threats—that’s crossing a line. Some of the backlash has gotten so heated, the book’s publisher said Wednesday, that it canceled the 13 events left on Cummins’s national book tour. I think what happens to a lot of these writers: they grow up in a bubble, they study and get feedback and praise in a bubble, and then reality hits when the book comes out and people say, “Hey, you forgot about us, you didn’t take into account how we would feel about your book.”. I’ve been called out by my wife on things in my novel—this chapter, this scene, it just reads as a little bit sexist, did you intend for the characters to be that way? know some of their stories; some who came here as teenagers Now, if you’re being criticized, that’s different. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. On the podcast “Latino USA” on Wednesday, she said that she was “feeling disappointed with the tenor of the conversation.”. Her commentary, and a host of other responses, prompted a long conversation within literary and Latino spheres: on who should be able write what, and how they should write it; on which books are promoted by the publishing industry, and how it treats Latinos, both as authors and characters, on who counts as “Latino” to begin with. Work, art—it’s up for being socially and culturally criticized. “The story is going to enter like a Trojan horse and change minds,” Cisneros said, “and it’s going to change the minds that I perhaps can’t change.”, For her part, Cummins stayed relatively quiet, attending a few stops on her book tour and going silent on social media. But the frustrating part to me is more than just the the artistic failure—it’s that in publishing they keep giving money and privilege to writers who are not within the culture. Keep my mouth shut. The Problem With American Dirt Is Not Its Author’s Background I couldn’t care less if Jeanine Cummins is white, but her book is a failure. Visit Back2BU for the latest updates and information on BU's response to COVID-19. Writers are finding themselves arguing with friends and heroes. I will read Mr Suarez’ book about Cuba, which will interest me The publishing industry ensured her book’s success with a vast publicity push — dinners for booksellers and celebrity endorsements, including from big names like Oprah — that most novelists … People should read the book for themselves. Personal attacks are not productive, everyone can agree on that. the communities they have formed here to navigate the immigrant Now Latino advocates are calling for people to focus on issues beyond the book. Still, the discussion on social media and in literary and Latino circles had long taken on an entirely different tone. The issue isn’t that Jeanine Cummins was the person to write her book, it’s how she did it. Jeanine was paid a seven figure advance, let’s not forget about that. I come from a country where censorship is the real thing, and it’s nothing like what these people claim here. But the most common take on the American Dirt fiasco is that it resulted from Flatiron’s hubristic failure in what the industry refers to as “positioning”—that is, communicating the genre a … With American Dirt being so steeped in controversy, I had originally believed I would simply read and rate it. I’ve written outside of my race. All the while, parts of the book’s promotional campaign turned up on social media, adding only more fuel to the backlash: A celebratory dinner hosted by Flatiron featured a barbed-wire centerpiece, as if to resemble the border wall. Despite getting Winfrey's endorsement as … 51 in June, Washington, DC's star might not be light years away Winfrey said she recognized the need for a “deeper, more substantive discussion" about the novel, and PEN America, a free expression group, condemned the “harsh invective” coming after the author. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. It’s not just POC [people of color] calling people out on Twitter, which is one part of it, but it’s also POC having more of a voice, which I think is a good thing… Now you have to consider a larger, more diverse audience if you want to be a good writer. For anyone in that culture [Mexican], I can understand why it would feel problematic. Jan 31, 2020 1:30 PM. Gurba and two other critics, under the banner of a campaign called #DignidadLiteraria, said they “have no interest in a dialogue with Jeanine Cummins.” (Gurba said she also received some violent threats in response to her piece.). I was referring to attacks in general. Some people say that this is about cultural appropriation, that a white American woman shouldn’t have written a novel about the Mexican migration. family and friends; our grandparents were immigrants too. Entertainment & Arts Commentary: ‘American Dirt’ is what happens when Latinos are shut out of the book industry Salvadorans walk past troops in … One year later, The Issue with Tissue 2.0 looks at recent changes in the industry landscape and updates our brand scorecards in response to those changes. I think what happens to a lot of these writers: they grow up in a bubble, they study and get feedback and praise in a bubble, and then reality hits when the book comes out and people say, “Hey, you forgot about us, you didn’t take into account how we would feel about your book.” This is not about censorship. Suarez: I tell my students you can write about anyone and any place you want. Where am I not doing enough of the cultural work? “If the fury over this book can catalyze concrete change in how books are sourced, edited, and promoted,” the organization said, “it will have achieved something important.”. as well, when it becomes available. American Dirt is just one of the latest examples of a problematic politics of good intentions that appears across well-meaning institutions and … experience that awaited them here, and I will continue to support “them” Thanks, I realize that. I suspect many readers will be moved and inspired to read more books on this subject. Well-meaning critics of a novel about a mother and son fleeing a cartel in Mexico have missed the point: is it any good? Flatiron has since apologized for how it positioned and publicized the novel, and its parent company, Macmillan, has pledged to substantially increase its numbers of Latinx authors and staff. So if I were to write about myself, that would be something that I would want to explore, maybe even more so at times than the fact that I’m Latino or Latinx.At GrubStreet we emphasize content, which encompasses context, alongside craft as part of the conversation. spent 26 years as a reporter at the New York Times, where she wrote about education, the death penalty, immigration, and aging in America, and was the New England bureau chief. Gabino Iglesias is a writer, journalist, and book reviewer living in Austin, TX. Some of it concerns the novel’s bad writing; others object to the fact that Cummins does not speak … Yet, for all the negative criticism, “American Dirt” still appeared to be doing well in terms of sales. © Boston University. it was well done, peaked my interest, and I will recommend it to my reading And then so many other writers who are writing about the same things in a more complex and nuanced way are not getting the money, the attention. Suarez: It’s all complicated and it’s never going to be perfect. When I read “American Dirt,” I didn’t know the back story — the bidding war, the seven-figure advance, the proclamation that this was the immigration book of its time. And, in fact, they are doing it. Inside the cancellation of "American Dirt" (and its book tour) Jeanine Cummins' novel about a pressing political issue had Oprah's backing, but … “We are saddened that a work of fiction that was well-intentioned has led to such vitriolic rancor.”. Suarez: But the bigger point is—there is a community of people telling you there’s something wrong with this book. Yes. I have worked with workers from these countries for 25 years, I like heavy metal music. In an open letter on Wednesday, more than 80 writers called on Winfrey to remove the novel from her book club, an action she has taken just once before. I appreciate his (and Bostonia’s) reintroduction of sensible nuance to the conversation. You should write about what you don’t know as a way to learn, as a way to inhabit other people and to develop empathy. Yeah, the problem with American Dirt is much deeper than American Dirt. I always have people read the work and critique it from a craft perspective, but also to highlight anything in the content that seems problematic or not nuanced enough or unclear. It has already sparked a maelstrom of criticism from many corners, including my own. This whole American Dirt controversy has been awful.The harder people try to extricate themselves, the deeper they sink. It’s perhaps the strongest response following weeks of intense debate about “American Dirt,” which follows Lydia, a middle-class bookstore owner forced to flee Acapulco after gangs kill her husband. Her publisher, Flatiron, was criticized for promoting a soap opera-ish page turner as the immigration novel of our times—and throwing a book party with barbed-wire-festooned centerpieces—while overlooking talented Latinx authors who have written about the subject with greater nuance and complexity. not to read it. I’ll never stop thinking about it.’’ In fiction and in my nonfiction and in my poetry, I’ve written about Cuba and about people and places that have nothing to do with me. Citing “concerns about safety,” including unspecified threats of violence to Cummins and booksellers, Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan, instead plans to schedule town hall-style discussions between the author and her critics. It felt badly done, artistically. Some accused Cummins, who has mixed Irish and … Her coverage of the death penalty was cited by the Supreme Court in its 2002 ruling outlawing the execution of developmentally disabled individuals. What do you tell your students about writing about the so-called other? American Dirt's detractors are left wondering why its flawed and clichéd portrait of the migrant experience is the one now securing a movie deal … If only books could be reviewed for their intention not execution.. https://t.co/0Ski959YHY. Taking one for the team this week. I grew up in Cuba until I was a teenager, when I came to the United States. But “American Dirt” has now been largely rejected by the very Mexicans and Mexican Americans it was meant to foreground, the “faceless brown mass” … Suarez: I have a fundamental problem with framing the conversation through the lens of how do people write in the call-out culture—are folks allowed to write about people who are different from them—because that’s just code for, “Can white people write about people who are not like them—who are not from the same race or culture—without getting criticism?” To me, that’s centering the conversation on whiteness. It’s all complicated and it’s never going to be perfect. On Tuesday, Oprah Winfrey announced Jeanine Cummins’ new novel American Dirt as her latest Book Club selection, but the title has been on the receiving end … On that front, PEN America sees a possible silver lining to the controversy. Great interview. For anyone in that culture [Mexican], I can understand why it would feel problematic. Your email address will not be published. And you should listen and say, “Let me engage, let me see where I failed because obviously it’s not resonating with the community that I’m writing about.” But that’s often not their [the writers’] reaction and I think that’s where people get frustrated. I think they have the right to be curious and to explore and to write about people who are different from them. And I’ve written about women. Some accused Cummins, who has mixed Irish and Puerto Rican heritage, of inappropriately stealing from writers of Mexican descent, many of whom had long struggled to break into an overwhelmingly white publishing industry. Others came to her defense. There’s no place for that in any conversation. A conversation with Cuban-American author Dariel Suarez Jeanine Cummins has been accused of exploiting the migrant experience. Latino author and writing teacher Dariel Suarez calls the novel American Dirt an artistic failure -- anyone can write about anything he says, but they need to do the work of getting it right. I think our approach, which is starting to come more to the forefront, is, hopefully, creating generations of writers who will be more aware of the cultural importance of their work and their audience. Yet for the letter-writers, it seems that falls short. In its Wednesday statement, the publisher called the marketing moves “serious mistakes” and expressed both regret and shock about the book’s reception. On Friday, March 6th, Apple TV aired part one of… In particular, they pointed to part of Cummins’s author’s note, which spoke of increasingly polarized politics on immigration. They called it a thrilling page-turner, “a ‘Grapes of Wrath’ for our time” and “the great novel of las Americas.”. By addressing these critiques through open conversation, Flatiron Books said it hoped to work towards a solution. Sandra Cisneros, the best-selling Mexican American author, said the book might engage new audiences on questions of immigration. 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