Girlcott of Seal Press
I've always intended to go back and review one of my favorite disability autobiographies, Connie Panzarino's The Me in The Mirror, which I read back when I was a teenager. But, you know what? It's published by Seal Press, a company that I cannot support or endorse at this time. Not even for Connie Panzarino, who was an amazing white, queer, disabled woman. I haven't found a good online reference on Connie that doesn't reference and quote the book, so I'm just not going to say that much more about her right now.
Someday I hope Seal Press sets this right and I can talk about an interesting book and an empowering woman. Connie Panzarino, that is.
5 comments:
What did Seal do?
Amazon have lots of second hand copies, that way you can get it without giving money to seal press
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1878067451/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209476495&sr=1-1
Diane, there's some explanation at the links. It's complicated so I hate to try and sum up, but basically Seal Press been unsupportive of women of color authors while publishing a book with racist illustrations. There was an apology issued over the weekend, which is maybe a start, though it was a very poor apology.
Philomela: Yes! Second-hand copies are a good option. As is a library, if they already have a copy.
Kay --A Seattle author of my acquaintance sez: "Seal Press may have the same name & logo, but it's no longer the Seal Press we all once knew & loved. All the original people left when a faction took it over & decided to make it Profitable. They now publish stuff on losing weight & other girlish pursuits. No more fiction, since that was losing them money. & apparently part of their problem with the appropriation mess is that they are totally clueless about the internet." It's a dilemma whether to girlcott them, to my mind, since one would like to see the authors and editors of the older stuff get royalties; and the new mgmt will surely take their books oop if they don't sell . . .
Josh: Yeah, I certainly don't want to punish authors and editors I admire for the behavior of the current Seal Press managers. But I'm also not going to spend my money with a business that pretty explicitly makes some offensive and hurtful publishing choices.
Post a Comment