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Featured Newspaper Articles: Publishing Controversey

'American Dirt': Beyond the controversy, a flawed but relevant novel
Date: 1/30/2020
Brief Abstract: Jeanine Cummins' book may encourage readers to see commonalities such as the universal desire to find safety and home.
'American Dirt': Who gets to tell your story?
Date: 1/30/2020
Brief Abstract: The publisher of Jeanine Cummins' novel "American Dirt" canceled her book tour Wednesday, saying she has received death threats.
'American Dirt': Who Gets to Write Fiction?
Date: 1/31/2020
Description: Letters to the Editor. Readers react negatively to criticism of a new and acclaimed novel about migrants.
'American Dirt' is a novel about Mexicans by a writer who isn't. For some, that's a problem
Date: 1/22/2020
Brief Abstract: At first, Jeanine Cummins was worried she had no business writing "American Dirt." Born in the U.S., of mixed Irish and Puerto Rican heritage, she feared she was unqualified to tell the story of migrants journeying through Mexico.
'American Dirt' Isn't the Problem.
Date: 2/2/2020
Description: Last fall, I was sent an advance copy of Jeanine Cummins's new novel, ''American Dirt,'' and a request for an endorsement. As a Mexican-American woman and an immigrant, it was clear to me that I was not the intended audience for this story. And yet, I found it compelling. I noticed its shortcomings, the things she got wrong about our culture and experience, but saw past them.
'American Dirt' leaves stains on migrant experience
Date: 1/21/2020
Description: Lots of someones "slightly browner" than Cummins did write it. Just last year, Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli published the searingly smart "Lost Children Archive." In 2018, there was the beautifully written "Fruit of the Drunken Tree" by Colombian writer Ingrid Rojas Contreras. Or there's 2004's Pulitzer Prize finalist "The Devil's Highway" by Mexican writer Luis Alberto Urrea - an author Lydia cites as one of her favorites.
'It's unprecedented': how bookstores are handling the American Dirt controversy
Date: 2/2/2020
Description: Independent bookstores across the US have found themselves in the crosshairs of the unabating controversy over American Dirt, with some booksellers debating how they should promote the novel, and redistribute the profits.
Book World: "American Dirt" offers a thrilling adrenaline rush - and insights into the Latin American migrant experience
Date: 1/13/2020
Brief Abstract: At a bank in the border town of Nogales, a Mexican woman named Lydia attempts to withdraw cash from her dead mother's account. She needs $11,000 to pay a smuggler to lead her and her 9-year-old son into the United States. But when the bank manager asks for documentation, Lydia can't supply any. Less than two weeks earlier, her mother, her husband and the rest of her family were murdered at an afternoon barbecue. Lydia and her son, Luca, have since then been on the run.
Book World: Oprah refused to cancel her 'American Dirt' show - and reminded us what civil discourse looks like
Date: 3/6/2020
Description: Early this morning, the legendary talk-show host posted two one-hour episodes focused on Jeanine Cummins's controversial novel, "American Dirt," about a Mexican mother and her son fleeing from a murderous drug lord. Before its January publication, the book had been heralded as (BEGIN ITAL)the (END ITAL)story about the immigrant experience and was extravagantly praised by Stephen King, Sandra Cisneros and Ann Patchett.
The Confessions of Jeanine Cummins.
Date: 3/2020
Brief Abstract: AS JEANINE CUMMINS was writing American Dirt, her much-hyped novel about a Mexican woman and her child who flee gang violence and illegally cross the border into the United States, she must have imagined scores of suburban American women lounging on overstuffed couches and sipping ros é with fellow book clubbers as they discussed her terrifying melodrama.
The Controversy Over 'American Dirt'.
Date: 2/2/2023
Description: Letters to the Editor regarding the article, "The Long Shadow of 'American Dirt'" by Pamela Paul.
Dishing 'American Dirt' With Oprah Winfrey
Date: 3/9/2020
Brief Description: Jeanine Cummins, whose novel about a Mexican woman and her son ignited a backlash, heard from some of her detractors in an episode that Apple TV Plus began streaming Friday.
Jeanine Cummins's novel American Dirt was a hit, then someone accused her of cultural appropriation
Date: 3/31/2020
Description: WHEN Jeanine Cummins submitted her novel American Dirt, about a middle-class Mexican woman and her eight-year-old son forced to flee Mexico and enter the US as illegal immigrants after their family are wiped out by a drugs cartel, she had no idea that within weeks of publication, the book would be making headline news.
The Long Shadow of 'American Dirt'.
Date: 1/29/23
Brief Abstract: Three years ago this month, the novel ''American Dirt'' by Jeanine Cummins landed in bookstores on a tsunami of enthusiasm. ''Extraordinary,'' Stephen King wrote in a prepublication blurb. ''Riveting, timely, a dazzling accomplishment,'' raved Julia Alvarez. ''This book is not simply the great American novel; it's the great novel of las Americas,'' Sandra Cisneros proclaimed. ''This is the international story of our times. Masterful.''
Publisher cancels 'American Dirt' book tour, citing safety concerns
Date: 1/30/2020
Brief Abstract: When she set out to write "American Dirt," Jeanine Cummins wanted to start a conversation about migrants at the border.
Publishing's Moment of Reckoning... Again
Date: 02/03/2020
Brief Abstract: In the wake of yet another publishing scandal with race at its center, I've received nervous emails from writers worried about their forthcoming novels. Could what happened to American Dirt […]
Publishing’s ‘American Dirt’ Problem
Date: 2/3/2020
Brief Abstract: The article talks about controversies related to publishing of the book American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Topics discussed include a review of American Dirt by novelist Lauren Groff, views of Pamela Paul, editor of the newspaper New York Times Book Review, on reviewers and apology of publisher Bob Miller for the way the Macmillan imprint marketed American Dirt.
The real dirt on 'American Dirt'
Date: 1/31/2020
Description: People who claim they want to give 'voice to the voiceless' really don't.
The straight story on American Dirt
Date: 6/11/2020
Description: When people tell me they have read and enjoyed the novel American Dirt, it is usually with a tone of either apology or defiance. The hold list for this title in Valnet is long; it tends to be with popular books, especially those that are controversial.
Why not let Mexican writers earn the seven-figure advances?
Date: 2/1/2020
Brief Abstract: The publication of American Dirt has sparked a conversation, but white novelists have long borrowed the voices of others; The publication of American Dirt has sparked a conversation, but white novelists have long borrowed the voices of others.

Featured Newspaper Articles: Author Profiles and Interviews

Book World: Myriam Gurba knows that her jokes won't age well.
Date: 9/8/2023
Description: Interview with Myriam Gurba
The Other Side: Jeanine Cummins's new novel, American Dirt, is about a mother crossing the U.S.Mexico border with her son
Date: 11/11/19
Description: Author Profile and Comments from Jeanine Cummins.

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