By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The publisher of Jeanine Cummins’ controversial novel American Dirt has canceled the remainder of her promotional tour, citing concerns for her safety.
The novel about a Mexican mother and her young son fleeing to the U.S. border had been praised widely before its Jan. 21 release and was chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her book club. But Mexican-American writers have been among those criticizing American Dirt for stereotypical depictions of Mexicans. Cummins is of Irish and Puerto Rican background.
“Jeanine Cummins spent five years of her life writing this book with the intent to shine a spotlight on tragedies facing immigrants,“ Bob Miller, president and publisher of Flatiron Books, said in a statement Wednesday. “We are saddened that a work of fiction that was well-intentioned has led to such vitriolic rancor.
“Unfortunately, our concerns about safety have led us to the difficult decision to cancel the book tour.”
In a new statement, Flatiron publisher Bob Miller acknowledges mistakes in how American Dirt was promoted, and says Cummins is cancelling her tour due to “specific threats” to the author and booksellers, and will be having townhall meetings instead.
— Alexandra Alter (@xanalter) January 29, 2020
Cummins, 45, had made a handful of promotional appearances since her book was released, but over the past few days the St. Louis-based Left Bank Books had called off an event and Flatiron had canceled interviews in a pair of California stores. The tour for her heavily promoted book had been scheduled to last at least through mid-February, with planned stops everywhere from Seattle to Oxford, Mississippi.
Despite the criticism, Cummins’ novel had been selling well and was No. 8 on the Amazon.com best-seller list at the time Flatiron announced the tour was being cut short.
Cummins does have at least one major interview coming up. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Winfrey confirmed that Winfrey will meet with the author next month and that the discussion will air in March on Apple TV Plus. American Dirt was the third picked by Winfrey since she began a partnership with Apple last year.
Winfrey first chose American Dirt last fall, before any criticism had emerged and acknowledged in a pre-publication interview with The Associated Press that she was unaware of any controversy. She has since posted a video on Instagram, saying that she had been following the debate and hoped for a broad discussion.
“I’ve spent the past few days listening to members of the Latinx community to get a greater understanding of their concerns, and I hear them. I do,” Winfrey said in the video. “What I want to do is bring people together from all sides to talk about this book.”
Editor’s Note, January 29, 2020, 4:30 p.m. ET. Dignidad Literaria organizers issued a statement about the decision by Flatiron Books to cancel the book tour.
Vitriolic rancor? How about neoliberal hypocrisy and baldfaced corporate racist profiteering. Myriam Gurba called out to Cholas to go to Vroman’s in Pasadena for the reading. Did FlatIron (MacMillan) think we were going to show up with knives and guns? We leave that to the Trump Crowd. As for Oprah, by the time she ‘convenes’ all sides of the issue (as if she is even in a position to do that, especially después que ya la cagó) in MARCH she will lose even more credibility. Ms Oprahbmust think mañana is soon enough. It’s not. My respects to the 82 authors who stood up today to demand that she stop promoting the reinscription of racism for profit. #DignidadLiteraria ¿Y qué?
[…] instance, when the publisher of American Dirt canceled the remainder of the author’s book tour due to safety concerns, it immediately left me (and […]
[…] But Cummins is neither Mexican nor a migrant, and critics savaged the book for its cultural inaccuracies and damaging stereotypes. At least one library at the border refused to take part in Oprah’s promotion, 138 published authors wrote an open letter to Oprah, asking her to rescind her endorsement, and the publisher canceled Cummins’ book tour, claiming her safety was at risk. […]
[…] But Cummins is neither Mexican nor a migrant, and critics savaged the book for its cultural inaccuracies and damaging stereotypes. At least one library at the border refused to take part in Oprah’s promotion, 138 published authors wrote an open letter to Oprah, asking her to rescind her endorsement, and the publisher canceled Cummins’ book tour, claiming her safety was at risk. […]