Yes, we're still here and we still need your help to spread the word and submit stores. We got quite a lot recently, and we incorporated photo evidence into our database.
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After being let down by what we saw at B&N in NYC, we've spoken with the supervisor of the four NYC stores who assured us balance at the stores was incredibly important to them, and on a more recent visit the displays and stock were significantly better. We will be moving them to the safe spaces list.
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"Magazine rejects advertisement for Bernard-Henri Lévy’s work because it will give booksellers ‘trouble they haven’t asked for and don’t wish to have.’"
The above is taken from this Free Press piece. We encourage you to read and listen to the phone exchange.
Here's what stood out to us -
"Notkin told The Free Press she “was in shock” after the phone call. “And I thought to myself, you know, they don’t fire employees for antisemitism. Instead, they cancel the ad with Israel in the title. If the book were titled Black Alone, Gay Alone, Palestinian Alone, I’m hedging this wouldn’t have been a problem."
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That's not the only concerning literary news of the week.
Another letter of boycotting is upon us, signed by 400 authors, including some Booker Prize finalists.
The full list is likely to come out on Monday, but in the mean time, you can read about it here.
The more time goes by, the clearer it becomes that there's a huge bias and hate in the literary world and it needs to be addressed systematically.
We encourage store owners to look within and realize how damaging this has been, and continues to be.
The Jewish Book Council in collaboration with Artists Against Antisemitism have published a guideline to help store owners.