Oprah admits to 'not looking for Latinx writers' as American Dirt controversy continues
Oprah Winfrey has admitted that she is “guilty of not looking for Latinx writers” in a forthcoming episode of her influential book club, after her choice of Jeanine Cummins’s controversial novel American Dirt was widely criticised.
In the two-part show, which will be broadcast on Apple TV+ from Thursday, Winfrey defends her choice of the novel because it made her feel personally connected to immigrants’ stories, reported the Associated Press (AP), which attended the taping last month. But she acknowledged the widespread criticism of American Dirt, the story of a woman and her son fleeing Mexico for the US that has been slammed for stereotypical portrayals of Mexico and Mexicans.
The publishing industry has also been criticised for the hype around the novel, with Cummins receiving a sevenfigure deal and a huge marketing campaign from Macmillan-owned Flatiron Books – support that critics argued Latinx writers rarely receive. Cummins’s book tour was cancelled in January, with Flatiron citing safety fears.
A statement from Winfrey said: “If you read the book there is no doubt you heard about the controversy around it … I heard and understand the concerns and wanted to bring together many voices to lean into this conversation because for 25 years on The Oprah Show I learned that is the only way I think we can actually gain a better understanding of one another.”
Winfrey says in the show that her response to the criticism was to talk about the issue without “having to cancel, to dismiss or to silence anyone”. She admitted to being shaken by a letter from almost 150 writers asking her to reconsider her choice of American Dirt; they said the novel was “widely and strongly believed to be exploitative, oversimplified, and ill-informed, too often erring on the side of trauma fetishisation and sensationalisation of migration and of Mexican life and culture”.
But Winfrey said that she hadn’t considered dropping it, because if she had it would have been “because of pressure and not because I felt something was wrong”.
The television host, who has run into controversy in the past over her choice of books including James Frey’s disputed memoir A Million Little Pieces, did admit to that in the future she would “pause” to consider who the author of a book was before picking them for her show.
“Am I going to have to spend the next two months defending the writer … or can we actually talk about the story?” she said. “I’m not going to play it safer, but I’m not going to wade into water if I don’t have to … This has taken up a lot of my energy, a lot of [Cummins’s] energy, and it’s taken the attention away from the real reason I want people to read books.”
The show sees Winfrey read Cummins social media criticism of her novel and ask her if she regrets writing in her author’s note that she “wished someone browner than me would write it”. Cummins replies that her language was “regrettable” and the phrase “very clumsy”.
Also featured are contributions from Latinx commentators Washington Post columnist Esther J Cepeda, activist and writer Julissa Arce, and author Reyna Grande. “For some reason, someone who has a name like Jeanine Cummins can write about anything. Someone with a name like ours, well, we can only write about immigration,” said Cepeda, who also criticised Winfrey for failing to include Latinx writers in her book club.
“Well, I am guilty of not looking for Latinx writers,” Winfrey said in response. “I will now, because my eyes have been opened to see, to behave differently.”
Cummins told the AP in a separate interview that she felt the conversation was productive: “I really understood where they were coming from, the women who were there in opposition to the book. I hope that they also understood where I was coming from,” she said.
The #DignidadLiteraria movement, a coalition that formed in response to American Dirt, was less positive. “We are disheartened that Oprah is attempting to quash our campaign of dignity and, from what we’ve gathered, is failing to address the concerns that we and tens of thousands of people across the country have raised about her promotion of the book,” it said after the recording. “We will not allow the Oprah machine to be an accomplice in distorting and erasing the migrant, refugee and Lantinx experience or coopting ownership of our stories and our power.”