Milo Yiannopoulos inked a book deal with Simon & Schuster, and writer, Roxanne Gay is taking a stand. Wednesday, the best-selling author pulled the plug on her upcoming book, How to Be Heard from the publisher. Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy defended the publisher's decision by announcing Yiannopoulos's book, Dangerous, would not "incite hatred, discrimination or bullying." Yiannopoulos with his harassing and hateful behavior was permanently banned from Twitter after he made several racist and hurtful comments towards actress Leslie Jones, then egged on a bunch of other users to chime in.
Gay is one of many writers and authors calling out the publisher, and Jones has also voiced her distaste. Yiannopoulos and his hate speech have been the subject of many protests, most recently at the University of Washington in Seattle, where violence occurred.
Gay's new book How to Be Heard was set to be part of a series co-published by TED and Simon & Schuster. Following her statement, she told BuzzFeed, “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."
Read her full statement below:
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. I have not placed the book elsewhere. I do hope the book is published someday.
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