The controversy over the Oprah-endorsed American Dirt has rocked an entire industry.
The meeting happened on Feb. 3.
There had been reported threats of violence on one end, death on the other.
NEW YORK - JANUARY 21: Oprah Winfrey with author Jeanine Cummins Gayle King, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil Co-Hosts of CBS THIS MORNING. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images).CBS via Getty Images
Outside its walls, Oprah Winfrey was enduring withering criticism; Stephen King too.
Town halls were sprouting across the country.
A nationwide tour had been canceled.
Hispanic writers raise theirs fists after meeting with the CEO of MacMillan USA and executives of its division Flatiron to protest the publication of the novel “American Dirt” in New York City on February 2, 2020. - The writers have created a new movement called Dignidad Literaria to push for more diversity in the publishing industry, both in terms of staff and number of books published by Hispanic authors. (Photo by Laura BONILLA CAL / AFP) (Photo by LAURA BONILLA CAL/AFP via Getty Images).LAURA BONILLA CAL/AFP via Getty Images
For many, this wasn’t enough.
And all over the publication of a well-intentioned novel by an unknown author.
Flatiron, a division of Macmillan, hailed it as a definitive migrant novel.
Same goes for Cummins.
This was poised to be her breakout.
Large floral centerpieces wrapped in barbed wire went on display at its BookExpo party last May.
Vitriol flooded Twitter after Gurba reposted photos.
(Her representatives did not respond to requests for further comment.)
(She did not.)
More added their names; 142 signatures are now featured.
“The pain that we carry because of our experiences createsa sensitivity.
[Because] all of that was missing.”
(Several events had already been canceled.)
He apologized for, among other things, the barbed-wire centerpieces.
He added that he was committed to improvement.
That’s how Miller and Gurba found themselves in the same room a few days later.
Indeed, while Flatiron was doing damage control, a bona fide movement emerged.
(Per a 2019 study, the industry is 6 percent Latinx.)
They proposed a sit-down with Macmillan, and the publisher agreed to a meeting in its New York offices.
The discussion turned tense.
“Bob Miller switched gears when he began to tone-police me,” Gurba recounts to EW.
“He kept saying that I was a mean person.”
“It sucked the air out of the room,” Gurba recalls.
(Flatiron declined an interview for this story, and had no further comment.)
Macmillan ultimately acceded to three action items.
Per Bowles, president Don Weisberg initially resisted agreeing to anything within their roughly two-hour window.
We were not having any of that," Bowles says.
you’re free to absolutely make some determination today.'
The initiative, Macmillan sources say, is being taken seriously.
“I actually feel really, really confident,” Bowles says.
“What we’re hoping to see, I think we will see it.”
Gurba did not expect her essay to resonate much, let alone spark an industry’s reckoning.
“As a Mexican-American woman, I’m used to being ignored,” she says. "
I didn’t imagine that the words that I penned would have any tangible consequences.
Every day I’m taken seriously, I’m shocked."
She’s inspired more to share their experiences.
“What is in our power to do is to apply pressure,” Rojas Contreras says.
“For the most part [we’ve] pivoted away fromAmerican Dirt,” Bowles says.
“The cat’s out of the bag.
We’re moving on to the bigger fight.”
