It was only recently that the literary community took a hit with the allegations and stories surfacing about Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz. Various victims have come forward with their stories and everyone is shaken up. Now, action is being taken by women in the book community.
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Quill Books and Beverage in Westbrook, Maine has made the decision to pull all works by Junot Diaz from the shelf. Co-owner Allison Krzanowski made an announcement via social media to stop selling the author’s famed works that helped him gain so much success.“There are plenty of authors who aren’t sexually assaulting and sexually harassing people, so we make more space for them by removing the ones who are,” says Krzanowski to Press Herald.
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Are people supporting the shop? Of course! Are some people against it? Of course!
“Some people thanked us in person and commented that it can be really triggering for survivors of sexual assault to see those names out there… There have been some people who think we are banning books, and to that, I say it is our choice not to carry products. It’s not the same as a book being banned. We have a ‘safe space’ commitment, and that extends to our shelves.”
On Saturday the café/bar and bookshop’s Facebook page posted a list of Latina author suggestions in the wake of the Diaz allegations. It’s certainly not the first time that Quill Books and Beverage has done this. It was a few weeks ago that Jay Asher, author of the popular young adult series Thirteen Reasons Why, had allegations released against him and Krzanowski made sure they were off the shelf to create a safe space for her readers.
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“We have limited space… We want to use the space to promote writers that we want to support.” It’s not that the book is banned forever, you simply can’t buy it in that shop. Could they be onto something? What would a bookworm think?
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