red sofa literary agency

Days after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, the city exploded into protests. An argument on whether or not to call the police when civil unrest becomes destructive exploded between literary agents and now has led to legal action.

Red Sofa Literary Agency owner Dawn Frederick tweeted May 28 on a now-deleted Twitter account that she called police on alleged looters during a night of unrest in the Minneapolis area.

Another literary agent Beth Phelan, who works with the Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency and the Twitter pitch party #DVpit creator, tweeted that Dawn’s actions were “disingenuous and gross.” As agents began to quit from Red Sofa Literary, the business was mentioned throughout book Twitter with the allegations by other literary agents, authors, and prospective authors. Now those agents who helped those tweets go viral have received cease-and-desist letters.

Beth; Laura Zats, founder and literary agent of Headwater Literary Management and co-host of the award-winning Print Run podcast; Kelly Van Sant, a former Red Sofa Literary agent who resigned over Twitter; and Isabel Sterling, young adult author of These Witches Don’t Burn and the upcoming The Coldest Touch, said they all received cease-and-desist letters from Dawn’s defamation specialist lawyer, Marshall H. Tanick of the Minneapolis firm Meyer Njus Tanick.

From the letter posted on Twitter by Laura, Dawn is requesting the group stop accusing her of racist acts and being racist, remove all tweets related to the accusations, and “prepare and post a corrected statement indicating that she did not make any racist or other improper statements, casting aspersion on her, her character, or her reputation.” Laura added in a subtweet that Dawn had told her to “back down” when an agent threatened legal action against her over sharing a link.

The group started “A Bookish Legal Defense Fund” GoFundMe page to pay for their legal costs and wrote their own letter. Their lawyer is J. Remy Green, a partner with New York firm Cohen & Green, who also specializes in defamation. The fund has $15,000 out of its $75,000 goal with over 400 donors as of June 18, a week after the fund was created.

The definitions between protestors, rioters, and looters and the overall situation have been disputed like in previous periods of civil unrest. YA author Kimberly Jones had a viral video interview earlier this month where she explains the reasoning behind the differences of who’s participating in the unrest and why they’re participating.

Dawn posted an apology in a letter on Red Sofa Literary’s homepage on May 30.

I’m deeply sorry for anyone I hurt with this careless action.

The authors and agents who may now question whether or not we share the same ideals have every right to feel this way. My actions were tone-deaf and the product of my own privilege—even if they were unintentionally so.

Book Twitter kept buzzing about the sincerity of the apology days later while authors like Foz Meadows who worked with Red Sofa Literary in the past shared their issues with Dawn and the agency. Dawn is closed to queries and three other agents still work at the agency.

The social media battle happening across industries and circles around the civil unrest has led to plenty of cancel culture, but book Twitter is moving fast with its cancellations.

Another literary agent, Marisa Corvisiero of Corvisiero Literary Agency, also received backlash for representing The Maze Runner author James Dashner, who had been accused of sexual misconduct and was dropped by his literary agent at the time in 2018. After agents also began resigning over Twitter, Marisa let go of all her agents, according to an internal email retained by Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America’s Writers Beware.

Last week, the National Book Critics Circle lost more than half of its 24-member board after 15 members resigned over drafting a statement in support of Black Lives Matter. One board member, Carlin Romano, called “the full benefits of white supremacy and institutional racism” and “white gatekeeping had been working to stifle black voices at every level of our industry,” as the statement read, “absolute nonsense,” according to photo screenshots from Hope Wabuke, a Ugandan-American author who suggested making the statement and eventually stepped down from the board.

The National Book Critics Circle wrote in a statement that it would delay its awards to focus on diversity efforts.

“The NBCC Board is committed to reimagining the entire organization and restructuring in a way that modernizes the NBCC and demonstrates a clear commitment to racial and social justice. We will not move forward as an organization unless we have met the ideals we aspire to.”

As the death of an unarmed Black man killed at the hands of police in Minneapolis sparks protests, a local literary agency owner is being criticized for notifying police about so-called “looters.”

Literary agents who worked at Red Sofa Literary Agency, located in the Minneapolis twin city St. Paul, have been announcing their resignations on Twitter and letting aspiring authors know their queries may go unanswered due to owner Dawn Frederick’s actions. It’s in response to the uprisings in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities over the death of George Floyd, who was killed after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes on May 25 to place him in custody for alleged forgery.

On May 28, Dawn said during protests she called the police to alert officers to what she viewed as looting and property damage.

The people who did this had busted the doors and many people were running out with items in their arms, jumping back into their cars, and hightailing it off the block. It was straight up looters.

Please note: there were NO protestors present. Zero protestors.

She continues in her statement on the agency’s website that she’s participated in protests in support of Black, Indigenous and People of Color. She also added she’s “incredibly saddened” by George Floyd’s death, especially since it happened in her city.

Having seen people get arrested when protesting, I’d never under any circumstances call the police on someone for protesting. That goes against everything I do when it comes to honoring (and participating) in protests.

But her fellow literary agents disagreed as they were still resigning as of Saturday afternoon, the height of protests across the U.S. marching in solidarity over police brutality. Kelly Van Sant, Amanda Rutter, and Stacey Graham shared their resignation letters on Twitter. According to the list of agents on the website, Dawn and Liz Rahn, who hasn’t tweeted in weeks, may be the only ones left.

Abby Jimenez and Barb Curtis are two authors who expressed they’ll be leaving the literary agency along with their agents. Some aspiring authors announced rescinding their queries to and contracts with the agency. Beth Phelan, the creator of the #DVpit Twitter pitch party for aspiring marginalized authors, shared the story to her 23,800 followers that may have helped it go viral on book Twitter.

She and other supporters quote-tweeted the agents who resigned and asked their followers to assist them in finding another job.

Dawn has owned Red Sofa Literary since 2008, according to the agency website. Her experience shows her dedication to the local literary community with being a co-founder of the MN Publishing Tweet Up and a member and teaching artist of the BOD for Loft Literary. Book editor Jake Klisivitch stood in solidarity with Dawn but received backlash on social media for his support.

Her Twitter account @redsofaliterary doesn’t exist anymore after sharing her reasons for calling authorities amid the protests; the agency can be found on @TeamRedSofa.