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Controversy Mars ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Film 

SHE LIT: Controversy Mars ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Film 🎬

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📚 Join the #shelitbookclub on July 31 as we discuss the novel Red Clocks by Leni Zumas amid the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Details can be found here.

Film poster for "Where the Crawdads Sing"

Delia Owens’ alleged involvement in killing resurfaces as movie aims for box office gold

Where the Crawdads Sing became a runaway hit in 2018. Now, it’s getting the book-to-film treatment with its theater-only premiere this Friday. But the author’s past is creeping back into cyberspace while the filmmakers including celebrity book club queen Reese Witherspoon are getting the side eye for supporting the book after the allegations came to light.

Delia Owens wrote nonfiction books about wildlife conservation with her now-estranged husband Mark Owens. They lived and worked in different African countries with Mark’s son Christopher Owens. Their second book focused on their battles against elephant poachers. In 1995, an alleged poacher or trespasser was killed while the Owens lived in Zambia protecting elephants, according to media reports. And the killing was taped by ABC News, but the shooter was offscreen.

Zambian investigators say the Owens family members are still wanted for questioning in the killing, including the Where the Crawdads Sing author, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic broke this week, also tweeting that ABC News should also be considered involved for failing to report the killing. The same week Where the Crawdads Sing opens in theaters.

The Owens couple and their work to protect wildlife against poachers gained ABC News’ attention at the time, which turned into filming the family for the Turning Point newsmagazine show. Critics have accused the couple of acting as White saviors with taking the dangerous issue into their own hands and blaming African poachers and African officials for the decrease in the elephant population. The person who was killed has never been identified.

The novel about a “Marsh Girl” living on North Carolina’s coast turned murder suspect drum up similarities with the author as Delia has told media outlets that it’s pure fiction based on her experiences living in remote areas.

"Where the Crawdads Sing" book cover

In the current media circus around the Where the Crawdads Sing film, Delia is posting on Instagram official and behind-the-scenes promotional images from the film.

Reese Witherspoon and her Hello Sunshine company are credited as a producer. Via Reese’s Book Club, the actress/producer/celebrity bookwoman is promoting a giveaway for the film in partnership with Anheuser-Busch that includes four movie tickets, a book club tote bag, a Budweiser T-shirt and hat, and a Stella Artois lunch bag and bandana.

The book is reigning at number one on The New York Times best-sellers list for paperback trade fiction.

The publisher G.P. Putnam’s Sons under Penguin Random House knew at the end of the day the target audience of White female readers would overlook the author’s alleged ties to poaching and a killing in Zambia.

Screenwriter Lucy Alibar was asked about the killing by Time, but she said she was not familiar with it. Sony, the film’s distributor, canceled scheduled press interviews with Delia, Reese, and the film’s star Daisy Edgar-Jones after the interview with the screenwriter, according to Time. Even Taylor Swift is feeling the heat from fans for recording a song for the movie’s soundtrack.

A similar phenomenon happened in 2020 with Jeanine Cummins. The author, who identifies as White Latina, saw her runaway hit American Dirt receive harsh criticism from Hispanic and Latine literary communities as they argued the story was an inaccurate, offensive portrayal of Mexican life and immigration to the U.S. The novel still zoomed to number one on best-sellers lists with backing from the original celebrity book club queen: Oprah Winfrey.

The publishing industry is dominated by White women, according to recent reports tracking diversity, equity, and inclusion in publishing, so the average readers in mind for many acquired books tend to be White women.

Even at Penguin Random House, 75% of the publishing giant’s contributors identify as White, reveals the company’s recent audit. That means the majority of its authors, illustrators, and other creatives are White like 74% of non-warehouse employees at PRH, a workforce demographics report breaks down.

So, while the drama in Zambia is being portrayed by some as a Black-and-White issue, an author like Delia Owens can still be published and see unfathomable success as she remains at-large for questioning in an unsolved killing and in connection to other possible criminal activities abroad.

To unshroud this controversy from your name, wouldn’t you want to comply with authorities to end the doubt, or would your freedom be too much at risk? It seems like the author is doing just fine with the decades-long distance from her and the controversy, but it remains to be seen how moviegoers will be influenced by the old revelations.

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HarperCollins schedules one-day strike over unfair wages

The union at HarperCollins Publishers in the U.S. announced this week its 250+ members plan to strike on July 20. In a tweet, the union wrote its members are “striking for fair wages, stronger diversity commitments, and union rights.”

Last week, the union publicized its plan to coordinate a strike after it accused HarperCollins of not paying mostly women livable wages, especially in New York where most employees reside, and not delivering on its promise to boost diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

Singer Ashanti debuts her kids’ book about loving your name

Marking 20 years since her eponymous debut album, R&B singer Ashanti is on a book tour discussing her new book for early readers. Published by HarperCollins and illustrated by Monica Mikai, My Name is a Story celebrates Ashanti’s unique name and shows the struggle of explaining the meaning of her name as a child.

Earlier this year, the singer was accused of plagiarism by author Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow who wrote a book titled Your Name Is A Song under Innovation Press. That story is also about a young Black girl whose name is constantly mispronounced and how she learns to love her name.

Romance novelists team up for weekly newsletter

Georgia Clark and Hannah Orenstein have launched “Heartbeat,” a Substack newsletter featuring original romance fiction from the “best romance writers authors today.” All types of love will be recognized from familial to platonic, according to the message on the newsletter’s landing page. Both writers, who have had their books published by Simon & Schuster and live in New York, designated Friday mornings for the curated newsletter to drop into inboxes starting July 22.

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Book Festivals Highlight Diverse Works Amid Banned Books Movement

Two book festivals in Maryland have kick-started the summer off in a year when literary diversity is under attack in the form of book bans.

Books in Bloom and Gaithersburg Book Festival held family-friendly community events that featured a number of authors who either identify on the diversity spectrum or are passionate about freedom of speech in literature. Over the last year, more parents nationwide are asking school libraries to take books off shelves they deem inappropriate for their children to read while some libraries are reactively subtracting books to avoid controversy.

This movement of banning books is sparking opposition as authors and readers alike are going out of their way to support not only freedom of speech but support the variety of books meant to be read by children. The political divide was felt at these book festivals and may become a theme for other similar events in the U.S. throughout the year.

Banned books gain spotlight

Books in Bloom calls itself a progressive book festival in the master-planned city of Columbia, Maryland. To show support for banned books, the festival dedicated one of its soundstages to authors who discussed freedom of speech.

A vibrant setting in Merriweather District’s Color Burst Park, the book festival had a giant book-shaped display describing some of the top banned books in history from Toni Morrison‘s Beloved and Song of Solomon to Alice Walker‘s The Color Purple. With Busboys and Poets as the independent bookstore for the event and a location in the park, most books for sale were books by authors who are Black and/or LGBTQIA+.

Queer memoirs All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson and Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe had notable stacks on the tables with other titles that have become the face of many bans though they were created for the middle grade and young adult audiences. The bans are usually due to racial and cultural content, sexually explicit content, and offensive language.

Headliners included a panel with PEN America, the nonprofit organization advocating in the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland’s 8th congressional district and author of Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy. Raskin also attended Gaithersburg Book Festival to sell and sign his latest book.

The book festival’s keynote speaker was Carl Bernstein, the well-known The Washington Post reporter who co-headed the news coverage on the Watergate scandal in 1972. On the festival’s main stage, he marveled at his time growing up around Columbia and how he first became a cub reporter as a high school dropout in his new memoir, Chasing History: A Kid In The Newsroom.

The last Books in Bloom was held less than a year ago in-person in October with The New York Times reporter and The 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones serving as the keynote speaker.

Diverse works lead way

Reminiscent of a large outdoor book festival such as Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Gaithersburg Book Festival in Gaithersburg, Maryland marked its 12th year as an event supporting the greater community with inviting traditionally published authors and offering seminars on book publishing and creative writing for children and adults.

Authors such Dhonielle Clayton, who has a new middle grade release with The Marvellers, and Kimberly Jones, who is promoting her social justice young adult novel Why We Fly with co-author Gilly Segal, discussed their works at the annual event. Dhonielle, a Gaithersburg native, and Kimberly are some of the top YA Black authors who have been outspoken about diversity in literature and social justice matters.

Asked about some of her summer read recommendations, Dhonielle mentioned Valentina Salazar Is Not a Monster Hunter by Zoraida Córdova; the Track series by Jason Reynolds; and The Devouring Wolf by Natalie C. Parker, in which Dhonielle says there’s a wolf character named after her.

Another author at the event was Jeanine Cummins, who gained notoriety with her immigration novel American Dirt, interviewing Reyna Grande about her book A Ballad of Love and Glory. American Dirt follows a Mexican woman trying to escape to the U.S. with her young son after her family is murdered.

Some high-profile Hispanic and Latine authors spoke out about the White Latina author’s seven-figure advance because they said the publishing industry would never offer them such a sum for centering stories on Hispanic and Latine characters. They also claimed the book had inaccuracies in the culture and language that wasn’t native to the author. On the other hand, there were Hispanic and Latine authors and celebrities who supported the Oprah’s Book Club selection.

Since American Dirt came out in 2020, Jeanine, like many authors who had released their works at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, now have the chance to work the promotion circuit in-person.

Social justice and historical nonfiction were the focus of many authors’ works at the book festival. Gayle Jessup White talked about her lineage connected to former slave-holding president Thomas Jefferson in her book Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant’s Search for Her Lasting Legacy. Kristin Henning shared her experience representing Black youth in the D.C. court system and how she conceived the idea for her book The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth.

Along with Raskin, Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff for California’s 28th congressional district visited the event to chat about his book Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could.

D.C. area indie bookstore chain Politics and Prose served as the event bookseller.

The pre-summer book festivals helped usher in the first literary events for authors and readers to enjoy as society emerges out of the pandemic and the world of book publishing remains volatile in the wake of book bans.

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what's lit

March 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

New Waves by Kevin Nguyen

R&B singer and author Amerie selected the debut novel that publisher Penguin Random House calls “wry and edgy” with a focus on “race and startup culture, secrecy and surveillance, social media and friendship.”

On Instagram, Amerie said, “New Waves had me questioning who we are, who we think we are, and what we leave behind. How do we grieve someone whose online footprint looms large? And really, can any of us live up to the terrifying hyper-optimism of tech culture (and this is coming from an extreme optimist)?”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card

The book club helmed by actress Emma Roberts has chosen a novel being called one of the most anticipated debuts of the year. It’s also introducing the sale of the book via Bookshop.org, a new e-commerce outlet where proceeds go to indie bookstores.

GMA BOOK CLUB

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

In partnership with Fab Fit Fun’s book club, Good Morning America picked this novel its publisher Simon & Schuster categorized between Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You and David Nicholls’ One Day.

“Rebecca Serle’s novel is being hailed as a standout pick for spring,” the national morning program wrote in its article.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Love WITH Accountability: Digging up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse edited by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

As Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation by Zoé Samudzi and William C. Anderson

Keeping in line with choosing two books, Noname selected As Black As Resistance while her homie’s pick Love With Accountability came from Dawud, the facilitator for SCI Coal Township Prison Chapter. Both books were published by AK Press, which describes itself as a “worker-run collective that publishes and distributes radical books and other media to expand minds and change worlds.”

The up-and-coming rapper’s book club serving readers of color has grown exponentially since last summer, including the partnerships with black-owned bookstores, local libraries, and recently prison book clubs.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

The book club is finishing its latest controversial book, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. The media maven promised to hold a conversation in front of the cameras, which dropped March 6 at midnight on Apple TV as a two-part interview with the author and critics dissecting the book and its alleged divisiveness.

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Partnering with Book of the Month subscription service, Today Show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager said in an article that she never chosen a book like Writers & Lovers.

“I chose ‘Writers and Lovers’ because I don’t think I’ve chosen a book like this,” said Jenna. “Lily King really explores different themes that our book club hasn’t explored.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward

“Are you ready to set sail on a literary adventure, y’all? This month, I’m reading The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward! I love the sense of adventure in this story—it’s about a disconnected family that reunites on a cruise ship traveling through Europe,” actress and producer Reese Witherspoon wrote in the announcement to her book club. “If you’re packing for Spring Break, be sure to include a copy of this fun read and follow along with Reese’s Book Club!”

Like with each of her book club’s selections, the author wrote a companion essay.
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what's lit

The Fight for Diversity in Publishing Competes With ‘American Dirt’ Success

American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins’ debut sensation, was met with controversy right off the bat when the Latinx literary community said some descriptions in the book appeared racist. Jeanine, who identifies as a white woman with a Latina grandmother, saw her author profile still rise with white readers and Oprah Winfrey claiming it as a marvel.

Whether readers think the novel had racist undertones or not, American Dirt reignited the conversation around diversity in publishing. But what changes should we expect?

A group of Latinx writers, spearheaded by Myriam Gurba, helped drive the campaign against the novel, which led to a meeting with Flatiron Books after the publisher canceled the book tour  over safety concerns for the author and booksellers hosting the events. The Flatiron Books president and publisher, Bob Miller, said he and his colleagues had been excited about the book’s release and its praise from major authors and Barnes & Noble and Oprah’s Book Club making the book a selection. In a statement, after the excitement wore off, he said:

“We were therefore surprised by the anger that has emerged from members of the Latinx and publishing communities. The fact that we were surprised is indicative of a problem, which is that in positioning this novel, we failed to acknowledge our own limits.”

The statement also added the publisher regretting the categorization of the novel under the migrant experience, the mention of Jeanine’s husband being an undocumented immigrant “while not specifying that he was from Ireland,” and a centerpiece at a bookseller dinner last May that “replicated the book jacket so tastelessly.”

The barbed wire illustration on the cover has been seen as offensive, and critics accused Jeanine of glamorizing the negative symbol of immigration with her book cover manicure. The blue watercolor-looking birds have become a part of Oprah’s Book Club profile photo on Instagram and the background of Jeanine’s website.

Flatiron Books plans to organize town hall meetings, where Jeanine will be joined by groups who have raised objections to the book. Dignidad Literaria responded with a letter from 142 writers of various ethnic backgrounds asking Oprah, who wields much literary industry power, to backtrack and drop American Dirt from its selection list. Some authors include Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Sabrina & Corina; Jasmine Guillory, author of The Wedding Date; and Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek.

On Oprah’s Book Club Instagram posts asking for input on the novel, most of the comments are positive reviews. Jeanine, the author of The Crooked Branch, The Outside Boy, A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and its Aftermath, has expressed her support for migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border on her website and asked readers to also send their support.

When I was traveling in Mexico and the borderlands researching for American Dirt, nothing surprised me more than the preponderance of HOPE among people who endure so much hardship. That is what the United States of America still represents to the people who risk everything to get here. So many good people in the US and Mexico are deeply committed to protecting refugees in their most vulnerable moments; these folks are out there just quietly saving lives every single day. If you are moved to do so, please support them however you can.

The Los Angeles Times featured a recent local event, organized by Myriam and other writers including Roxane Gay, about the American Dirt controversy. Roxane said of the novel’s author, Jeanine:

“This woman is going to be set for life, this book is going to earn royalties in perpetuity, and so it just reinforces what publishing already knows, which is as long as white people are translating the experiences of people of color, it will sell very well.”

Dignidad Literaria is holding another town hall meeting in San Antonio, Texas at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center on Feb. 22.

With American Dirt at No. 1 this week on The New York Times Best Sellers list, the time period of the book’s success may last a few more months and most likely reach the end of the year. Roxane echoes the concern that diversity in publishing, especially related to this book, might not happen the way it needs to.

One of the main issues is a white author being reportedly paid a seven-figure paycheck to tell migrant stories that are not a part of her experience. The argument between readers is who gets to write others’ experiences versus if it’s fair to designate certain stories for certain groups.

All eyes are now on Oprah’s TV special she promised in response to the criticism. According to local Arizona publications, she was shooting Feb. 13 on location in Tucson, where 250 people were asked to meet at the Harkins Theatres Arizona Pavilions and moved to another location. Oprah had promised last month on CBS This Morning that she would shoot the special around the border towns mentioned in the book.

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what's lit

February 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

Little Gods by Meng Jin

Singer-turned-book YouTuber Amerie plans to host the author at the end of the month on Instagram Live to discuss the novel.

“Quantum physics meets motherhood, love, and identity in this haunting portrayal of a daughter’s desperation to be seen and a mother’s desperation to disappear,” she wrote in the book club’s post. “@mengjinwrites creates characters who are at once vulnerable, caring, self-absorbed, and despicable, and through it all, utterly real. I rooted for them just as I was repelled by them; always, though, Ms. Jin put me so firmly in their heads, I couldn’t help but feel empathetic, even as I cringed.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan

“An exhilarating novel about a group of students who take revenge on a wunderkind professor after she destroys one of their own—a story of collective drive to create, sabotage, and ultimately, to love,” the book club copied from publisher Penguin Random House in its announcement email and on Instagram.  ⠀

GMA BOOK CLUB

Good Morning America’s book club hasn’t named its February title yet. It’s celebrating Black History Month with a Feb. 19 appearance by Tomi Adeyemi of Children of Blood and Bone and Children of Virtue and Vengeance fame; Kiley Reid of Such a Fun Age; and award-winning young adult novelist Jason Reynolds.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Magical Negro by Morgan Parker

“I’m so excited to start black history month by honoring two incredible black women. trust me you definitely want to read with us for the month of february!” rapper Noname tweeted when quote tweeting her book club’s two picks. She also reminded her followers to shop local bookstores, preferably black-owned, and avoid Amazon.com.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

The book club is finishing its controversial January book, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, which added a spark to the conversation around diversity in publishing.

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré

“It’s about this young girl, Adunni, whose voice, from the time she is born, is strong, loud and clear but because of where she is born and the circumstances of her life, she doesn’t yet know how to use it,” said Today Show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager in an article.

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

“The story centers around Emmeline, a young girl who lives on a remote island with her father and uncovers secrets of the natural world through her senses,” Hollywood bookwoman Reese Witherspoon’s book club explained on Instagram. “As she gets older, she becomes even more curious about the scents in the drawers of their cabin.”

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what's lit

Why the Latinx Literary Community Is Warning Us About ‘American Dirt’

While American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins was being officially named the monthly pick for Oprah’s Book Club and the Barnes & Noble February 2020 National Book Club Selection Tuesday morning, Latinx writers and book bloggers and their supporters had already launched a social media campaign warning readers of the alleged egregious stereotypes about Mexico and Mexican-Americans within the book.

Oprah joined the CBS This Morning crew, including her BFF Gayle King, with Jeanine to share the highly anticipated book selection.

“You already have a little bit of haterade people are drinking about you,” Gayle said about the controversy. “Even you were first worried you had no business writing this book. You felt compelled yet unqualified because it’s a migrant story. In Mexico.”

“I always knew I wanted to write about immigration,” Jeanine responded. “I was interested in that topic and I resisted for a very long time, telling the story from a migrant’s point of view because I was worried I didn’t know enough. That my privilege would make me bind to certain truths.

“I felt very compelled. It was five years of research and two failed drafts that convinced me that I needed to go into Lydia’s point of view,” she said. She added during her early research she spoke to a former Chicano studies professor chair at San Diego State University who told her: “‘Jeanine, we need every voice we can get telling this story.'”

Oprah ended the interview by saying she and Jeanine will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border to the real places mentioned in the book to videotape the book club special for Apple TV+.

On Instagram, book bloggers and writers posted several photos starting with a neon blue screen, matching the blue hue in the book cover, followed by a pile of books by Mexican-American writers. Book blogger Lupita @lupita.reads said the book is “filled with harmful stereotypes of my culture for the sake of representation.”

Especially not at this time when all we are fed in the media is “Mexico = bad”. I can’t and I won’t accept books that dehumanize immigrants. The thing is, I am not a “brown faceless mass”, as the author noted, I have had a face for a very long time and so have writers like me that have written about our struggles beyond our initial journey here.

The messages ask readers to educate themselves on the stereotypes in the book and support books actually written by Mexican and Mexican-American authors who depict more accurate immigrant stories but didn’t get the same marketing budget as American Dirt. Book bloggers a part of the “own voices” community posted they felt their concerns about the book have been drowned out by the good reviews by the publisher, Oprah, and their affiliates.

The book is under the Flatiron Books imprint with MacMillan Publishers. Its website has a quote from trailblazing Mexican-American poet Sandra Cisneros saying, “This book is not simply the great American novel; it’s the great novel of las Americas. It’s the great world novel! This is the international story of our times. Masterful.”

“This book is not simply the great American novel; it’s the great novel of las Americas. It’s the great world novel! This is the international story of our times. Masterful.”

American Dirt follows Lydia, a bookseller in Mexico, who is married to a journalist. Once her husband publishes a profile of a drug cartel leader, Lydia must flee her home with her son Luca. Their journey leads to the border where they know the cartel leader won’t find them in the U.S. The book’s description ends: “As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?”

https://twitter.com/SassyMamainLA/status/1219701834454949888

Though Oprah received the bulk of the backlash, Barnes & Noble also announced its bookstores will hold a book club discussion on March 10 at 7 p.m. No word yet on any counter-discussions scheduled at that time.
 
 
“With Jeanine Cummins’ American Dirt, we have selected a book that will resonate with our customers and stay with them long after they turn the final page,” said Liz Harwell, senior director of merchandising, trade books at Barnes & Noble, in the announcement. “American Dirt is a heart-racing page turner that takes readers into the heart of the migrant crisis.”
 
 
Barnes & Noble Book Club conversation will be at #BNBookClub on social media while Oprah’s Book Club can be found at @OprahsBookClub on Instagram.