public outcry no less vigorous, par-
ticularly as insensitive elements of
the novel’s marketing resurfaced.
Large floral centerpieces wrapped
in barbed wire went on display at its
BookExpo party last May. Vitriol
flooded Twitter after Gurba
reposted photos. Pulitzer Prize-
finalist author Laila Lalami called
the arrangements “repulsive”; The
Queen of the Night author Alexan-
der Chee described them as
“depraved.” Winfrey later acknowl-
edged the controversy, saying she’d
recognized “a need for a deeper,
more substantive discussion.” (Her
representatives did not respond to
requests for further comment.)
The morning of Jan. 29, 82
authors, including Carmen Maria
Machado and Rebecca Solnit,
jointly published an open letter on
Literary Hub asking Winfrey to
rescind her selection. (She didnot.) More added their names;
142 signatures are now featured.
One such writer, Ingrid Rojas
Contreras (whose best-selling
debut, Fruit of the Drunken Tree,
was published in 2018), had been
thinking about her and other Latinx
writers’ experiences trying to sell
their books, and the rejections
they’ve faced. “There’s a desire for
[stories about the border] to be
lighter, to be easier to digest,” she
says. “The pain that we carry
because of our experiences creates
a sensitivity. It’s interesting to me
that only on the outside could
[someone] have thought to write
American Dirt, or a book like it.
[Because] all of that was missing.”
That same day, Flatiron’s pre-
sident, Bob Miller, released a
statement announcing the suspen-
sion of Cummins’ book tour due to
“threats of physical violence” andbroader safety concerns. (Several
events had already been canceled.)
Miller admitted, “The discussion
around this book has exposed deep
inadequacies in how we at Flatiron
Books address issues of represen-
tation, both in the books we publish
and in the teams that work on
them.” 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 Flat-
iron was doing damage control, a
bona fide movement emerged.
Gurba and David Bowles, a Chicano
author and professor who’d been
similarly critical of Dirt on Twitter,
were contacted by Roberto Lovato,
cofounder of the Latinx organizing
group Presente.org, to join forces.
They developed the campaign
#DignidadLiteraria (or Literary
Dignity) and started holding
events nationwide to advocate
for lasting change in publishing.
(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.↑ Oprah Winfrey,
Jeanine Cummins,
and the CBS
This Morning team
touting American
Dirt on Jan. 21THE LATINX COMMUNITY WOULD BE THE EXPERT
COMMUNITY TO SPEAK ON [AMERICAN DIRT], AND YET
THOSE VOICES WERE MALIGNED AS NOT OBJECTIVE.”
—INGRID ROJAS CONTRERAS46 APRIL 2020 EW ● COMCBS VIA GETTY IMAGESAPRIL2020.REVIEWSOPENER.LO.indd 46 FINAL 3/3/20 2:34 PM