Feminist author Roxane Gay drops book publisher over Milo Yiannopoulos deal
Feminist author Roxane Gay has parted ways with publisher Simon & Schuster – after they signed far-right internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos.
Publisher Simon & Schuster has recently faced calls for a boycott after handing a $250,000 book deal to far-right internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos.
Yiannopoulos, a Donald Trump supporter, has previously claimed he would ‘cure’ himself of being gay if he could, and describes trans people as “mentally ill gay men dressing up for attention”.
He was banned from Twitter last year after allegedly encouraging a wave of racist abuse directed at Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, while he recently took advantage of a university speech on his ‘Dangerous Faggot’ lecture tour to single out and bully a transgender student on-stage.
‘Bad Feminist’ author Roxane Gay announced this week that in response to the Yiannopoulos controversy, she would be parting ways with the publisher, who she had signed with under the TED imprint.
Her upcoming book, How To Be Heard, was set to be published this month.
The bisexual author said:” 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.”
She added: “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.”
She added: “I have not placed the book elsewhere. I do hope the book is published someday.”
