Read on Twitter
I keep thinking about how fucked up it is that anyone would work with ChiZine ever again. It's one thing not to know what they did (though holy fuck, please do ANY research), but it's another to just...brush it all off. It baffles me.
...and then I remember a conversation I had.
...and then I remember a conversation I had.
After I lost "Pluralities, or" in the disaster that was incompetent vanity project Penrose Press, my partner and I reached out to one of the authors we knew had work lined up (but had been very offline) to check in that they heard about what had happened.
After explaining, sharing the tweets, and answering some career questions... they made it pretty clear they didn't give a fuck. So their pretty book is still coming out. And Penrose is still thriving on instagram. And I still can't open that manuscript. I want to, but I can't.
How do we get authors to think beyond themselves? How do we hold together a writing community when people are only looking out for themselves? How do we ask people to be accountable when a strong instagram following and a bucket of privilege gives them a free pass?
I don't want to ruin Brianna Tosswill's career. I want to know that she can grow. But continuing the Penrose name with a new mission specifically about supporting marginalized authors does not strike me as growing.
I just want people to give a shit about each other.
I just want people to give a shit about each other.
Penrose did not do anything NEARLY as egregious as what ChiZine pulled. Incompetence is very difference than outright malice. And it's horrifying how rampant incompetence runs in small presses.
But if you know that The Bullshit is present, and has hurt other people...why engage?
But if you know that The Bullshit is present, and has hurt other people...why engage?
Why participate? Why devalue your work? Why disrespect the people who have been harmed?
Give a shit about other people. Give a single flying fuck. This industry will never get better until we stop enabling bad actors.
Give a shit about other people. Give a single flying fuck. This industry will never get better until we stop enabling bad actors.
