Black Heart has previously removed pieces, quietly, from our site upon discovering that their (exclusively white, male) authors had behaved badly within the literary community. We have maintained an internal blacklist of these abusers for years, shutting out their work while attempting to shield our readers from potential blow-back from these violent, angry men.
We will no longer be silent on this issue.
There are predators in the literary community, who seek to prey upon the women who work here. They attack fellow authors, artists, editors and publishers. Black Heart will not support these predators. We will not publish their work, moving forward, and we will remove all of their previously published pieces from our website.
We will not accept this abuse, nor allow these abusers to flourish here.
We stand in solidarity with all #MeToo survivors, as well as #CanLit authors and #Concordia graduates who have publicly and privately shared their stories of abuse, and reiterate that #TimesUp for all abusers and their excuses.
For additional context on some of the most recent allegations within our community, please refer to the following articles:
- Stories Like Passwords by Emma Healey
- No Names, Only Monsters by Mike Spry
- And Then A Man Said It by Julie McIsaac
- Heather O’Neill speaks out about Concordia sexual misconduct allegations (Daybreak Montreal)
- Concordia to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct in creative writing program: President by Michelle Lalonde
- Two Concordia teachers removed from classes amid sexual misconduct investigation by Adam Kovac
- Why I Pulled My Winning Story From a Literary Magazine by Suzanne Alyssa Andrew