Every AWP, I’ve walked past the Author Guild’s table and thought, “It’s good that the Author’s Guild exists, but I don’t need it. I publish in university presses and lit journals; my contracts are boilerplate and there is very little actual money at stake. Certainly not enough to pay dues to an organization to help me protect it.” The Guild, I assumed, was for people who actually made money from their writing, not just from an academic position they got because they had written.
Yesterday, as Jewish writing social media blew up on the news of this statement from the Author’s Guild, I immediately changed my mind:
The Authors Guild condemns censoring, threatening, or blacklisting authors. We are aware of recent incidents in which presses have refused to publish articles and speaking engagements have been canceled based on the writer’s religious or national identity or their views relating to Israel or Palestine, as well as attempts to “blacklist” authors. We abhor antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry and discrimination intended to chill writers’ freedom of expression.
We remind all publishers, agents, readers, literary organizations, and writing communities that this type of censorship cannot ever be justified and that we cannot allow the current climate of fear and intolerance to be used to bully or silence writers. It is by writing and publishing, not by censorship, that we can best shine a light on injustice. Free expression is the soil from which democracy sprouts and thrives.
The Authors Guild takes strategic legal actions when authors are censored based on their views, religious or national affiliation, race, gender, or sexual identity, and we step in to provide legal assistance to members when their rights are being violated or ignored. Our legal actions serve to protect all authors regardless of changes in the political or social climate over time. The Guild encourages members and other authors who are experiencing censorship to reach out to us for support and to keep us abreast of what you are experiencing so that we may take action (staff@authorsguild.org).
This is the kind of response I, and many others, expected from the literary world when the blacklisting, censorship, and cancellations began. These are the values we had been told, for decades, the literary community held: values of a plurality of voices, open conversations, and tolerance of differences of opinion. Itisnotwhatwegot. (For a more complete list, see
‘s “Writers Beware” document, taken from her excellent newsletter, My Machberet, which is an invaluable resource for Jewish writers.)
Will this cost the Author’s Guild membership? Almost certainly some people will resign; resigning seems to be the move of the moment when a literary organization refuses to join the antisemitic mob. So join me, writer friends who stand by their statement condemning “censoring, threatening, or blacklisting authors. We are aware of recent incidents in which presses have refused to publish articles and speaking engagements have been canceled based on the writer’s religious or national identity or their views relating to Israel or Palestine, as well as attempts to “blacklist” authors.” Let’s make up for everyone who cancels their membership, and then some. This is the strongest statement I’ve seen from a non-Jewish literary organization, and they deserve our support for making the brave, and ethical, decision to issue it.
I looked at the application. I am an essayist, publishing mostly in literary journals. I'm applying anyway, but not sure if I'll be accepted.
I've been a member for a very long time. :)