The Humiliating Advice ‘American Dirt’ Author Got Post-Cancellation

Living well can be the best revenge.

So is surviving a Cancel Culture assault to write another day.

Author Jeanine Cummins thought she was on top of the world in 2020 as her new book, “American Dirt,” readied for its release date. Superstars like Oprah Winfrey and Stephen King had her back. The pre-release buzz proved deafening.

Then a woke attack like few others fell upon her.

Death threats. Canceled appearances. She worried the book might be yanked from store shelves.

Few authors faced the kind of backlash she endured. Her crime? She wrote a story from a different culture than her own.

Here’s how the far-Left New York Times described her thought crimes.

To critics of the book, she became the embodiment of the publishing industry’s racial blind spots, and the main character in a caustic debate about whether, and how, authors should write outside of their own cultural experience.

How many classic books, movies and shows would vanish if writers weren’t allowed that essential freedom?

Now, Cummins is back with a new book following the melee. This time, no one’s trying to silence her. She’s able to speak to the media without fear for her life.

“Speak to Me of Home” is a multi-generational drama drawn from some of her life experiences.

Cummins is sharing how she overcame Cancel Culture and how it made her marriage even stronger. She hasn’t forgotten what the woke Left put her through.

For two years afterwards, Cummins tried and failed to write other stories (‘I was “heavily advised” to write a book about problematic white people!’ [emphasis added]). Then she looked to her family history for a story she felt allowed to tell.

Her willingness to write a new novel is a success in itself. Her retreat to her so-called “lived experience” feels like she’s still fearful of the mob.

That’s understandable.

The news gets worse. The Daily Mail interview reveals her new book wouldn’t have been published without another woke layer of editing.

“I was resistant to a sensitivity reader, but my publisher would not have allowed me to not have one,’ she says. ‘Then, when we had the conversations that ensued, I could see the value in it. But I hope it’s a temporary stop-gap to get us through this moment in the culture so people can be encouraged to begin their own learning again.”

The artistic community has been mostly silent about most Cancel Culture attacks. Writers have been unwilling to rise up, en masse, against the rise of so-called “sensitivity readers.”

Even when celebrated authors like Ian Fleming, Agatha Christie and Roald Dahl found their works censored they stood down.

Cummins’ new book wouldn’t exist without a sad remnant of Cancel Culture at its worst. Maybe next time she’ll self-publish and ignore the publishing industry’s censorial ways.