66 newyork| february17–march1, 2020
thequestionsthat had stumpedherasan
M.F.A.student:Why this story,andwhy
now?“MeTooseemed like it cameoutof
nowhere,butI hadbeen paying attention,”
shesaid.“That’showI ended up at thispoint
whereI waswritingthis plotline andchoos-
ingtobelieveI hadsomething worthwhile
tosay, evenif I wasan unknownwriter
workingonthisendless book.”
Russell began querying agents in
spring2018.Shewas rejected morethan
60 timesbefore hermanuscriptlandedin
thehandsofHillary Jacobson,anagent
whohadbeendevelopinga trackrecord
of securing stunning advances.Jacobson
could see the book had “that extremely
rare and sought-after combinationoflit-
erary writing with a commercialplot.” She
added, “Never in my entire life,withany
book or manuscript, had I felt thattrans-
ported and transformed by areading
experience.” Jessica Williams, theeditor
who bought it, had a similar reaction.“I
have read countless manuscriptsexplor-
ing Me Too,” she said, “but noneofthem
have affected me like Kate’s.” Bytheend
of the year, Russell had joinedanelite
group. Each season, the Big Fivehouses
throw the full weight of their buyingand
marketing power behind a fewchosen
titles, sending the authors on booktours
around the world, featuring themin“buzz
panels” at conventions, and fêtingthemat
industry bashes. This swell of attentionis
what made Russell the subject ofa furious
Twitter controversy weeks beforethenov-
el’s publication.
on january 19, a writer namedWendyC.
Ortiz tweeted, “[C]an’t wait untilFebruary
when a white woman’s book of fictionthat
sounds very much like Excavationis
lauded.” Ortiz is the author of a 201 4 mem-
The CULTURE PAGES
oir, Excavation, about her five-year rela-
tionship with her eighth-grade English
teacher and the long shadow it cast over
her life. Although she hadn’t read My Dark
Vanessa, she could see from the marketing
materials surrounding its launch that the
story had certain thematic similarities to
her book. That Ortiz, who is Latinx,
refrained from naming the author or the
book in her tweet, and never directly
accused Russell of plagiarism, didn’t seem
to matter. Russell was assailed for copying
Ortiz’s work and profiting from a woman
of color’s suffering. Several prominent
authors stepped into the fray. “I’m sorry
that this other book is co-opting your story
without acknowledgment,” Roxane Gay
wrote in a tweet to Ortiz. “It’s wrong.”
Russell was appalled by the suggestion
of plagiarism—she called the accusation
“categorically untrue”—but she had read
Ortiz’s memoir. In a list of “influences and
interests” she’d posted months earlier, she
cited it as one of nearly a hundred works
(films, essays, books) she had consulted in
her research. Wounded, she tweeted that
she’d begun working on her book many
years ago. “These stories of abuse often
have v similar elements,” she pointed out.
Then she deleted her Twitter account.
I read Excavation, and Russell didn’t
plagiarize it. Beyond the central premise
of a woman reevaluating her teenage rela-
tionship with a teacher, the two works
don’t have much in common. But Ortiz’s
tweet was like a match dropped onto a
haystack soaked in gasoline. Many people
in the book world, including Ortiz, had
recently been rallying against American
Dirt, a novel about Mexican migrants
written by a white woman who, like Rus-
sell, had received a seven-figure deal. The
author, Jeanine Cummins, had beenaccused of ripping off the work of her
Latinx colleagues and perpetuating racist
stereotypes, and writers of color across
the country were outraged by what they
saw as yet another example of the pub-
lishing industry’s long tradition of prizing
white authors and disregarding others. In
the chaotic way of Twitter discourse, the
two stories were quickly conflated—never
mind the fact that few commenters had
read both My Dark Vanessa and Excava-
tion, or that none could have known
whether Russell had based her work on
her own life. (Gay later reviewed My Dark
Vanessa for Goodreads; she described it
as “well written” and called the online
conversation “aggravating.”)
The controversy has been good for
book sales: Excavation sold out on Ama-
zon. But Ortiz told me she was disturbed
by the way it unfolded. “People are taking
it as me against Kate,” she said. “But it’s
bigger than that.” Every mainstream pub-
lisher who’d received her manuscript for
Excavation passed on the submission
before it found a home with an indie
press. This fact, combined with the indus-
try’s embrace of My Dark Vanessa, struck
her as evidence of systemic racism. “It is
easier for white authors to get in the door
because the publishing industry is over-
whelmingly white,” she said.
Ortiz is unquestionably right about the
implicit bias at work in the publishing
industry. But several agents I spoke with
pointed out that there are other reasons
My Dark Vanessa may have appealed to
publishers who turned down Excavation.
For one, Russell’s book arrived during the
Me Too moment. For another, the two
books offer vastly different reading expe-
riences. Excavation is powerful, but it is
not suspenseful; its structure is experi-JANUARY 19
The Tweet That
Started It
Ortiz tweets about
My Dark Vanessa,
writing, “[C]an’t
wait until February
when a white
woman’s book
of fiction that
sounds very much
like Excavation
is lauded.”The Public Reaction
People respond to Ortiz’s
tweet, offering support and
echoing her statement.
Some go so far as to accuse
Russell of plagiarism,
claims that would escalate
in the following weeks. Erin
Ryan, writer and host of
Crooked Media’s Hysteria
podcast, calls Russell’s
book the fictional “white
version” of Ortiz’s story.
Over the next few days,
Ortizcontinuestotweet
about My Dark Vanessa.
She says she has not,and
will not, read the novel.Russell Enters the Chat
Russell reaches out to
Ortiz and tells her she
has read Excavation. On
Twitter, Russell notes that
stories of abuse often
share similar elements
and that her book could
be compared with any
number of works involving
the same subject. Her
2009 M.F.A. thesis,
she adds, was an “early
version” of the novel,
andsheworkedonthe
book for years before
Excavation was published.
(Russell then deletes
her Twitter account.)whenauthor Wendy C. Ortiz
singledoutMy Dark Vanessa on
Twitterforbeing similar to her 20 14
memoir,Excavation, people began
to accuseRussell of plagiarism
andculturalappropriation.