BU Today sat down with Suarez to talk about American Dirt and what he tells students who want to write about people who are different from them. 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. 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.). Column by Gabino Iglesias. 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. Keep my mouth shut. 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. Yes, but also any type of writing when it gets into culture and the way that an audience reads it. The point that’s being made is that if you are going to write outside of your own culture, or from a position of privilege, that you do so thoughtfully, that you engage with people in those communities—that you have them read your work and give you feedback. 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. How am I doing it? By León Krauze. You should be ambitious in your work and write about what you don’t know as a way to learn, as a way to inhabit other people and to develop empathy. “We, the undersigned, do not see a faceless brown mass. know some of their stories; some who came here as teenagers Based on the chapters that I read, I felt like the use of Spanish was at times laughable. Oprah Winfrey is breaking her silence on the controversy surrounding Jeanine Cummins’ new novel "American Dirt.". When she set out to write “American Dirt,” Jeanine Cummins wanted to start a conversation about migrants at the border. American Dirt fails to humanize immigrants because its author was unwilling to face the real forces behind migration and the very real challenges migrants meet once they arrive in the United States. The point that’s being made is that if you are going to write outside of your own culture, or from a position of privilege, that you do so thoughtfully, that you engage with people in those communities—that you have them read your work and give you feedback. 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. Then you should have people read the work and check you on your blind spots. Heading into its Jan. 21 release date, “American Dirt” seemed poised to become a hit. I read the criticisms after. For anyone in that culture [Mexican], I can understand why it would feel problematic. it was well done, peaked my interest, and I will recommend it to my reading Those, to me, are legitimate questions that should be part of the artistic process. I’ll never stop thinking about it.’’ A conversation with Cuban-American author Dariel Suarez I come from a country where censorship is the real thing, and it’s nothing like what these people claim here. 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. We believe inclusion and diversity are directly tied to artistic excellence—we don’t separate the two. Well-meaning critics of a novel about a mother and son fleeing a cartel in Mexico have missed the point: is it any good? www.bu.edu. This whole American Dirt controversy has been awful.The harder people try to extricate themselves, the deeper they sink. Your email address will not be published. I like heavy metal music. 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. “We are saddened that a work of fiction that was well-intentioned has led to such vitriolic rancor.”. By addressing these critiques through open conversation, Flatiron Books said it hoped to work towards a solution. Great interview. 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. ‘American Dirt’ is a novel about Mexicans by a writer who isn’t. 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. I want to make sure the cultural details in my stories about Cuba are as true to life as I can make them, based on the people who are reading these stories, who may have even more experience than I did because I left the country when I was young. It may not be “perfect” as the criticism of the novel suggests, Still, the discussion on social media and in literary and Latino circles had long taken on an entirely different tone. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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. On Friday, March 6th, Apple TV aired part one of… They called it a thrilling page-turner, “a ‘Grapes of Wrath’ for our time” and “the great novel of las Americas.”. But “American Dirt” has now been largely rejected by the very Mexicans and Mexican Americans it was meant to foreground, the “faceless brown mass” … on the journey, and the reasons that force these men and women to make I appreciate his (and Bostonia’s) reintroduction of sensible nuance to the conversation. We asked Cummins to … Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. It’s funny how people talk about censorship. In its Wednesday statement, the publisher called the marketing moves “serious mistakes” and expressed both regret and shock about the book’s reception. 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. “We seldom think of them as our fellow human beings.”, Yet the authors, many of them best-selling writers of color, said that passage raises a painful question: “Who is this we imagined by Cummins, who is this them?” their letter said. experience that awaited them here, and I will continue to support “them” Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. On the podcast, Cummins said it was “insane” that she didn’t speak up about these issues beforehand. I will read Mr Suarez’ book about Cuba, which will interest me She wanted to be judged on the merits of her work. That’s not what this is about. 51 in June, Washington, DC's star might not be light years away Suarez: It’s all complicated and it’s never going to be perfect. 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. And I’ve written about women. The actress Salma Hayek apologized for endorsing the novel. 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. The Problem with American Dirt, Part 1: Privilege and Power This is the first in a ten-part series in which González considers Jeanine Cummins’s novel, American Dirt (Flatiron Books) and the fallout from its publication. ... Others took issue with the large profit Cummins stands to … 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. Maybe one day they'll listen. That comes with the territory, especially with such a high-profile book. 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 … 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 … The goal is the same: let’s be better writers—and better people. Not many people have a more informed perspective on the controversy swirling around American Dirt, the wildly hyped best-selling novel about a Mexican mother and her son escaping to the United States, than Latino writer Dariel Suarez. For some, that’s a problem. 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? Inside the cancellation of "American Dirt" (and its book tour) Jeanine Cummins' novel about a pressing political issue had Oprah's backing, but … Work, art—it’s up for being socially and culturally criticized. Oprah Winfrey was “riveted from the very first sentence,” she said, and selected it for her book club, giving Cummins a literary seal of approval all but guaranteed to boost sales. It would be, by far, the safest, most non-controversial course of action to take. ‘‘I couldn’t put it down. Let's keep screaming. 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. 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?”. Suarez: I tell my students you can write about anyone and any place you want. There isn’t enough literature documenting the challenges to be faced Post was not sent - check your email addresses! 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). A letter from the publisher sent alongside advance copies flaunted the fact that Cummins’s husband was once an undocumented immigrant — without mentioning he is Irish. 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Not, not among the wealthy and priviledged, regular people, like myself 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. For readers of contemporary fiction, it would have been nearly impossible to miss the controversy swirling around Jeanine Cummins’ new book American Dirt.The novel, which sold for … guest; I was welcomed, stayed with family, and immersed in culture. Your email address will not be published. Some of it concerns the novel’s bad writing; others object to the fact that Cummins does not speak … Thanks, I realize that. And also some of the names and details felt like stereotypical telenovela, soap opera. 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. Inside the Beltway Current Issue. “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.”. Yet, for all the negative criticism, “American Dirt” still appeared to be doing well in terms of sales. 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. Some people can get personal, they can make threats—that’s crossing a line. 5 on Amazon’s bestsellers list, the highest-ranked work of fiction on the list. People should read the book for themselves. For some, that’s a problem. The heart of the problem is that "American Dirt" is not really a story of Mexican migrants at all. She received a seven-figure advance for her book, which has raised questions about how the publishing industry chooses which books, and writers, to aggressively promote, how authors approach writing about marginalized people from other cultures, and how the story of immigration, one of the most politically charged issues in the United States today, gets told. We, ourselves, are not faceless, nor are we voiceless.”. I’m light-skinned and I’ve written about black characters. It’s all complicated and it’s never going to be perfect. I admire them as good people, family people, and friends and appreciate It has already sparked a maelstrom of criticism from many corners, including my own. The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. There’s no place for that in any conversation. Yet for the letter-writers, it seems that falls short. I’ve read a few chapters, and I’ve read a few of the reviews that did a good job of delineating some of the issues. American Dirt’s problem is bad writing, not cultural appropriation. Artistic process most important news stories of the doubt to writers that they have right. Times reported, that Flatiron increased its first printing by 200,000 copies the United States, your blog can share. Might be part of the `` American Dirt ’ s the reality that we live in post was not -.: is it any good about ourselves diversity are directly tied to artistic excellence—we don ’ t think myself. Reality that we live in ’ said bestselling author Ann Patchett more books this... The so-called other tell your students about writing about the season ’ s something with. Ve written about black characters are directly tied to artistic excellence—we don ’ think! Read through the interview once more ’ new novel `` American Dirt ’ s ) reintroduction sensible. 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