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YA author Sarah Dessen (49) & her posse have breakdown after college student didn’t like her book

Eternal Love

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Somebody that's been in the game for over 20 years should not even get phased by these criticisms. Like you've MADE it as an author if you can be dissected, compared/contrasted, etc. over many settings and are a millionaire! I wouldn't even care over the petty criticisms because that's a part of the game. Now that this mess has gotten bigger with the reveal of the whole article, everybody freaking out looks real goofy right about now. Smh.
 

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YA TWITTER 1:59 P.M.
Famous Authors Drag Student in Surreal YA Twitter Controversy
By Lila Shapiro@lilapearl
15-saint-anything-dessen.w700.h700.jpg

In 2016, Sarah Dessen’s book, Saint Anything, was one of 52 considered for selection in Northern State University’s “Common Read” program. Photo: Vulture

Young-adult book Twitter took an especially surreal turn this week when the best-selling novelist Sarah Dessen took offense at a brief critique of her work, inciting a minor Twitter riot, with some of the most famous writers in the world jumping into the fray to defend her.

The drama began on Tuesday morning, when Dessen tweeted about an innocuous local news story about the ten-year anniversary of Northern State University’s “Common Read” program. Each year, a committee of students, professors, and local community members picks a book for every first-year student to read, and then invites the author to give a talk. Dessen was upset because a 2017 Northern State graduate named Brooke Nelson had told the Aberdeen News that she didn’t think Dessen’s work was worthy of inclusion in the program back in 2016, when she was a junior. “She’s fine for teen girls,” Nelson said. “But definitely not up to the level of Common Read. So I became involved simply so I could stop them from ever choosing Sarah Dessen.”

“Authors are real people,” tweeted Dessen, with a screenshot of Nelson’s quote. “We put our heart and soul into the stories we write often because it is literally how we survive in this world. I’m having a really hard time right now and this is just mean and cruel. I hope it made you feel good.”

The pile on began soon after, and quickly spiraled into darker territory. Roxane Gay, Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Weiner, Jenny Han, Angie Thomas, and N.K. Jemisin were among those who showed support for Dessen. Some of the comments from the famous authors took on the tenor of bullying. “fµck that fµck!ng b!tch,” wrote best-selling author Siobhan Vivian. (“I love you. <3“ replied Dessen.) "And now you have a nemesis,” added Gay, who has written extensively about the pleasures of having one. (Dessen did not reply to a request for an interview.)


roxane gay

✔@rgay

· Nov 12, 2019

Replying to @sarahdessen
That’s a lousy thing. I am sorry you had to see it. People have strange and inflated ideas about their taste level


roxane gay

✔@rgay


And now you have a nemesis.


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1:49 PM - Nov 12, 2019
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Many felt that Nelson’s quote was not merely a critique of Dessen’s body of work, but a misogynistic attack on all books written for teenage girls. “Not only does it suck because because @sarahdessen is one of the loveliest women you’ll ever meet,” wrote Picoult, “but because this implies something more sinister.” Like Weiner, who declared that Nelson’s quote “reinforce[d] systemic discrimination,” Picoult saw the young woman’s statement as evidence of the same insidious force that prevents female artists from achieving the recognition and success they deserve. “This kind of thinking is what leads to gender discrimination in publishing,” Picoult continued. “To not speak up about this incident isn’t just demeaning to Sarah. It’s demeaning to women, period.”


By Tuesday night, Northern State University had tweeted out an apology. “We are very sorry to @SarahDessen for the comments made in a news article by one of our alums in reference to our 2016 Common Read,” the college said. “We love young adult novels, and we appreciate the broad-ranging impact of YA novels.”

Nelson, now a graduate student, told Vulture in an email that she felt her quote had been taken out of context. Less discussed on Twitter by Dessen’s supporters were the books Nelson preferred to Dessen’s. “I followed my evaluation of Sarah Dessen’s work with a rationale advocating for three other books that I felt better addressed relevant social issues: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat, and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi,” she wrote to me in an email, noting that the original Aberdeen News article had left out her reasoning for why she’d advocated for other books. “These three books are beautifully written and push readers to stand against the racial inequality that the judicial system perpetuates, to consider the heritability and influence of tradition and trauma, and to contemplate what brings meaning to one’s life. These themes are relevant not only in the current social justice epoch, but they are especially meaningful and important for university students who, as emerging adults, are often engaging with social issues with a newfound sense of agency and urgency.”

Nelson studies linguistics — specifically, online harassment. “The irony has not evaded me,” she wrote. She is currently in the midst of fall semester finals, and declined to talk about how it felt to live inside the center of a raging Twitter storm. “I can summarize my experience as the following,” she wrote. “Since I actually have a scholarly interest in online aggression, it’s been a really interesting experience to observe how people use language to frame the issue and to express their perspectives in so many different ways.”


Justin Fraase, the university’s director of communications and the author of the apology tweet, told Vulture he decided to weigh in in part because it became clear to him that university would not walk away from the battle unscathed. One “significant factor,” he said, was when the reigning queen of YA, Angie Thomas, tweeted at the university, calling Nelson’s quote “appalling.” Thomas’s book, The Hate U Give, was the Common Reads’ 2018 pick. “It was written for TEEN GIRLS,” Thomas tweeted. “Don’t make any of my books your common reads since my demographic is beneath you.”

“We felt initially that we were on the outside looking in, but we quickly became aware that we were right in the middle of this, and we wanted to send a statement out there that we believed helped to clarify this,” Fraase said. “That this was an alumna’s statement, and while we understand that our alumni have the rights to say whatever they may want, that specific quote did not reflect the views of the institution. We really needed to make it clear that we were not against that genre.” He added, “And empathy is not a wrong thing to show. Especially on Twitter.”

The goal of the Common Reads program, according to Erin H. Fouberg, who runs it, is to pick an engaging book that inspires students to reflect on their own lives and consider diverse points of view. Back in 2016, Dessen’s book, Saint Anything, was just one of 52 considered for selection. It wasn’t an especially contentious year of debate. “There wasn’t a lot of discussion of Dessen’s book,” Fouberg said. That was the year that the committee picked Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson, a memoir by a black lawyer about racial bias and economic inequity in the criminal-justice system. “Just Mercykept rising to the top, because that book was amazing, and everyone who read it loved it,” Fouberg said. “It’s powerful and transformative. It makes you think about your assumptions, and also process your own personal experiences, which is what a Common Read should do.”

By Thursday, after the university had apologized, the backlash to the backlash was in full swing. Many accused Dessen of punching down, expressing their bafflement that so many famous authors would go after a student. “I will not use my platform to directly go after someone with less power,” wrote Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, who focuses on race in children’s and young-adult literature. “If your life and career is about young people, you’d know that’s bullying.” “Y’all come on,” tweeted Tressie McMillan Cottom, a 2019 National Book Award finalist. “It’s a student on a common book committee. It’s a thing that stings to read but it is not a political statement. This is so wrong.”

On Friday afternoon, Dessen deleted her tweet. When Weiner was challenged on Twitter for her comments, the author doubled down, saying that she has “zero regrets.” Vivian, meanwhile, deleted her tweet calling Nelson a “fµck!ng b!tch.” She wrote to Vulture in an email, “I tweeted a thing that I should have DMed.”
 

Horror Maven

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I’m done with Dhonielle. I hated how she treated Black girls who were upset about the casting of Amandla in THUG. So many of those girls were genuinely hurt because they thought that girls who looked like them were being erased yet again.

I also hated how she started subtweeting (also known as being passive aggressive) to a Black female reviewer who respectfully critiqued problematic content in a book that one of her friends (also a Black author, though I can’t remember who) wrote. She started going on and on about how Black people needed to do “call-ins” and stop airing out grievances with Black books like the reviewer did something wrong.
 

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Bookish realm wrote
Dhonielle Clayton really out here saying she called that woman a raggedy ass b!tch because black women use it in a variety of ways....ma’am what??? And then clearly you don’t really feel it’s right because you’re out here deleting tweets as of screen shots don’t exist.


IMG_20191115_153424.jpg


Dhonielle is a damn mess
 
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ambam1388

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Who are those go tos?

Jodi, Sarah, and Jennifer. I love a good chick lit or YA novel and Sarah and Jennifer deliver when it comes to those. I'm honestly not that torn up over Jodi now that I sit and think about it.
 

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I’m done with Dhonielle. I hated how she treated Black girls who were upset about the casting of Amandla in THUG. So many of those girls were genuinely hurt because they thought that girls who looked like them were being erased yet again.

I also hated how she started subtweeting (also known as being passive aggressive) to a Black female reviewer who respectfully critiqued problematic content in a book that one of her friends (also a Black author, though I can’t remember who) wrote. She started going on and on about how Black people needed to do “call-ins” and stop airing out grievances with Black books like the reviewer did something wrong.

Dhonielle Clayton really out here saying she called that woman a raggedy ass b!tch because black women use it in a variety of ways....ma’am what??? And then clearly you don’t really feel it’s right because you’re out here deleting tweets as of screen shots don’t exist.


View attachment 1165957

Dhonielle is a damn mess


tenor.gif


She has some damn issues
 

LieslAlbrecht

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Every few years there’s a dust up around these YA or Romance authors. I always get my kikis because they’re so sheltered in their everything-is-awesome bubble MFA groups. Nobody has the shell to ignore minor(and it’s ALWAYS minor) criticism anymore. Dafuk, you write books. Not everyone is gonna like your stuff. Don’t weaponize your fans to take down one person who didn’t like your chicken scratch queef. Move df on.
 

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she’s doing the absolute most. i went back and read some of the books i loved as a teenager and as an adult you realize they’re quite juvenile. it’s just the truth. i mean the books are literally written for teens so i’m not seeing what’s wrong with what she said
 

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I’m done with Dhonielle. I hated how she treated Black girls who were upset about the casting of Amandla in THUG. So many of those girls were genuinely hurt because they thought that girls who looked like them were being erased yet again.

I also hated how she started subtweeting (also known as being passive aggressive) to a Black female reviewer who respectfully critiqued problematic content in a book that one of her friends (also a Black author, though I can’t remember who) wrote. She started going on and on about how Black people needed to do “call-ins” and stop airing out grievances with Black books like the reviewer did something wrong.

I'm done with Dhonielle too. She constantly stirs sh!t up on Twitter and hides behind being a black woman. People could point out problems with The Belles or Tiny Pretty Things if they wanted to. Like the fact that there's allusions to the slave trade when Camille is the only one of the Belles who is black. I didn't like the writing for Gigi who was the only black character in Tiny Pretty Things.

The incident with the reviewer was over Nic Stone's problematic book Dear Martin. Zetta Elliot who is an author who both traditionally publishes and self publishes while being an advocate for black stories is the one who wrote a review pointing out the problems with the treatment of black women in Dear Martin. Dhonielle and friends unnecessarily attacked her. I never read Dear Martin but I did read Jackpot by Nic Stone and found some problems in that story myself.

Zetta has a Black Girl Magic poetry collection being published by Disney Books in January
SayHerName_comps2.jpg
 

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Never heard of any of these goofy heifers in this thread but they can all spontaneously combust especially that Dessen b!tch. Take your criticism and stfu, you loser.
 

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Bookish realm wrote
Dhonielle Clayton really out here saying she called that woman a raggedy ass b!tch because black women use it in a variety of ways....ma’am what??? And then clearly you don’t really feel it’s right because you’re out here deleting tweets as of screen shots don’t exist.


View attachment 1165957

Dhonielle is a damn mess

Saw that tweet yesterday and was wondering why she was spouting trash again.
 

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What in the white feminist hell? And what the fµck are these black women doing her bidding for?
 

Eternal Love

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I will go on ahead and reiterate some of y'alls points. I'm surprised by how many black authors were caping for Sarah. She would never do the same for them and idk I just kind of believe it's pointless to constantly put a 10 on a 2 level situation, especially at the expense of non-black authors! It was quite a few black women going to BAT for this nonsense and YA twitter never fails to entertain, lol.
 

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I will go on ahead and reiterate some of y'alls points. I'm surprised by how many black authors were caping for Sarah. She would never do that same for them and idk I just kind of believe it's pointless to constantly put a 10 on a 2 level situation, especially at the expense of non-black authors! It was quite a few black women going to BAT for this nonsense and YA twitter never fails to entertain, lol.
Amanda Joy has been going harder on Twitter for Sarah than she did to promote her book


She should've put the same energy into connecting with black readers and reviewers.
 

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Just came in to say that I'm not surprised to see Roxane Gay caping for that oyibo. Her article (or was it an essay?) about loathing herself for being attracted to oyibo men because they won't give her the time of day told me all I need to know about her (it's no coincidence that she is an oyibo feminist fave).

Also wanted to add that I'm not surprised that Jennifer Weiner's obnoxious ass threw herself into the mix, as anyone who has a passing knowledge of her knows how much of an attention ho she is.
 
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NSP30

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Saw that tweet yesterday and was wondering why she was spouting trash again.
I have no idea. She acts as if she has no awareness of the fact that she deliberately insulted and bullied that young lady by calling her a raggedy ass b!tch. Connotation matters she must think we are all a fool.
 

Eternal Love

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Amanda Joy has been going harder on Twitter for Sarah than she did to promote her book


She should've put the same energy into connecting with black readers and reviewers.


That makes no sense, tbh. I heard about her book months ago, but not recently. It's really to the benefit of debut/newer authors to keep it cute and focus on your own platform. I'm starting to see what people mean by black women tending to go hard for everybody but ourselves.
 

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It all started after Dessen posted this tweet

image0.png


What really happened

image0.png


Other authors jumped to Dessen’s defense when she got dragged


image0.png


EJVuXfDWwAAOTI_


EJW6kZBXUAAnClg

image0.png


They even tried to link a college student not thinking a YA book wasn’t suitable for a COLLEGE booklist to the MeToo movement

EJY74a5U0AACGZI


It didn’t work out so well for them either

image0.png


Dessen and her posse sadly had enough support that the student got doxxed and harassed



The book that was actually picked due to the student’s recommendation that Dessen purposefully cropped out

EJWerMmX0AUGaBK


By a black author, Bryan Stevenson

Bryan_Stevenson_Alt3.jpg


The college responded

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Articles for those want to read more information

Bestselling Authors Band Together to Dunk on a College Student

Sarah Dessen, Jodi Picoult, Use Twitter to Attack Recent Graduate

Cliffs

So a white woman who is 49 threw a hissy fit and set bullies on a student cause her children’s books were deemed not suitable for college students.

No one said her books were sh!t, they just said it wasn’t suitable reading for college students. Instead another book, which focused on the injustice faced by black people in the criminal justice system, was chosen as it was deemed more suitable for college students.

upload_2019-11-15_15-46-35.gif


I love how singularly focused the student was. She was like fµck this sh!t. Imma join this committee and get this childish sh!t up outta here!

Respect Sis!!! :emoji_fist:
 

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That makes no sense, tbh. I heard about her book months ago, but not recently. It's really to the benefit of debut/newer authors to keep it cute and focus on your own platform. I'm starting to see what people mean by black women tending to go hard for everybody but ourselves.
No one is talking about her book because she barely promoted it. Penguin Teen sent the book to Black Booktubers to read but she never went out of her way to actively connect with black readers on social media. Kingdom of Souls and Slay debuted the prior month and both authors were actively engaging with potential readers. KOS had a website with quizzes and a stan giveaway where you were able to win a set of character cards and a deleted chapter. Slay had a virtual game based off the game in the book that you could play with friends and a big pre-order sweepstakes that included a $100 gift card. Everyone I've heard talk about A River seemed very meh on it.
 

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Sarah and everyone who defended her should be ashamed of themselves.

I read her books in high school. They were enjoyable, but even then I felt that they were basic teen dramas that were hyped because she "dared" to write about teen dating violence.

Not only that, but it's one school. Why cry about it on Twitter knowing that fans will try to attack this person?
 
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Every few years there’s a dust up around these YA or Romance authors. I always get my kikis because they’re so sheltered in their everything-is-awesome bubble MFA groups. Nobody has the shell to ignore minor(and it’s ALWAYS minor) criticism anymore. Dafuk, you write books. Not everyone is gonna like your stuff. Don’t weaponize your fans to take down one person who didn’t like your chicken scratch queef. Move df on.

That’s the most confusing part about this whole ordeal to me. The criticism the college student gave was not even derogatory. I have read so much worse in terms of critiques. If she’s that easily triggered by mild criticism and feels like she needs to unleash her mob of followers and writer friends on one person, she has no business as a writer. Everyone knows you need thick skin, and need to be able to let criticism roll off your shoulders (or tune it out altogether like some authors choose o do). How did she even find a 2 year old criticism? Was she searching for it?

Imagine being a successful author with a big following, and still being pressed over small time criticism. The whole situation is entirely juvenile.
 

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Leaving some screenshots in case this one tweets and deletes because a debut black author who is also a college student tried to get her to see the light and she still was defending Sarah

upload_2019-11-15_16-59-9.png


upload_2019-11-15_16-59-29.png


upload_2019-11-15_16-59-41.png
 

Eternal Love

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No one is talking about her book because she barely promoted it. Penguin Teen sent the book to Black Booktubers to read but she never went out of her way to actively connect with black readers on social media. Kingdom of Souls and Slay debuted the prior month and both authors were actively engaging with potential readers. KOS had a website with quizzes and a stan giveaway where you were able to win a set of character cards and a deleted chapter. Slay had a virtual game based off the game in the book that you could play with friends and a big pre-order sweepstakes that included a $100 gift card. Everyone I've heard talk about A River seemed very meh on it.

Right. I heard so much about Kingdom of Souls and Slay over the summer, but not A River. Debut authors, especially black authors have to do so much self-promotion. Tomi Adeyemi's story is extremely rare (even for non-black authors) and they gotta put in the work for recognition.

Dhonielle Clayton has an interesting podcast with Zoraida Cordova about authors experiencing disappointment and imo it's so important for people to preserve their energy when it comes to these debates. How often do we see JK Rowling, Stephen King, any other big name authors get in such petty debates? We have to pick and choose the battles. Sarah is coming out of this pretty clean even though she cherry-picked the quote while all these other authors have to recant their words when they could have just tended to their own business.
 

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Right. I heard so much about Kingdom of Souls and Slay over the summer, but not A River. Debut authors, especially black authors have to do so much self-promotion. Tomi Adeyemi's story is extremely rare (even for non-black authors) and they gotta put in the work for recognition.

Dhonielle Clayton has an interesting podcast with Zoraida Cordova about authors experiencing disappointment and imo it's so important for people to preserve their energy when it comes to these debates. How often do we see JK Rowling, Stephen King, any other big name authors get in such petty debates? We have to pick and choose the battles. Sarah is coming out of this pretty clean even though she cherry-picked the quote while all these other authors have to recant their words when they could have just tended to their own business.
Tomi got the promo because her book was option for a movie long before the debut. I'm sure Amari and the Night Brothers will have similar promo in 2021 because Marsai Martin and Don Cheadle optioned it for a film and there was a big bidding war for the story.

Dhonielle should focus on her writing. I don't hear anyone talking about The Everlasting Rose anymore and it was only released earlier this year.
 

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Leaving some screenshots in case this one tweets and deletes because a debut black author who is also a college student tried to get her to see the light and she still was defending Sarah

View attachment 1166154

View attachment 1166155

View attachment 1166157

TBH I don't see anything wrong with what Amanda said. The whole Sarah Dessen was trying to obscure a book about a black issue is a conspiracy. Dessen's issue was clearly only about her book being called juvenile. Granted Dessen did too much.
 

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I just got caught up on this drama. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. Absolutely disgusting behavior.

This is the 2nd time this week adults with resources and large audiences have attacked college students. What is the obsession with attacking younger people?
 

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No idea who this is but their opinion really wasn't needed


Garbage, I have no issue with folks enjoying YA books, I read some myself and they do have great entertainment value. But this young woman was allowed to think that the book was not intellectually stimulating enough for college students. It has nothing to do with valuing young girls.
 

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Sarah tweeted a bs "apology"


That young woman was not even critical, she said she didn't think the book was for college aged students. And it is a YA book so why should it be?
And can someone please explain, how can one listen to her on Twitter?
 

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Some people tweeted out list of all the authors who supported Dessen. There's some I missed so I'll put them here for future reference.



 

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The level of ass-kissing for that rich white woman's feelings is disgusting. All of that because one (1) college student had the nerve to think that a book about social injustice toward black people is more appropriate for college students than her book written for young girls (that's literally the reason, she tried to hide it but her racism is clear as day).
fµck her and all her defenders. The audacity of making it about sexism. White feminism is a disease.
 

Spicerooni

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That young woman was not even critical, she said she didn't think the book was for college aged students. And it is a YA book so why should it be?
And can someone please explain, how can one listen to her on Twitter?
She really thought she had something until the revelation of her being a whiny racist went viral. She ain't slick at all.
 

ShashalovesCats

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It all started after Dessen posted this tweet

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What really happened

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Other authors jumped to Dessen’s defense when she got dragged


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They even tried to link a college student not thinking a YA book wasn’t suitable for a COLLEGE booklist to the MeToo movement

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It didn’t work out so well for them either

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Dessen and her posse sadly had enough support that the student got doxxed and harassed



The book that was actually picked due to the student’s recommendation that Dessen purposefully cropped out

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By a black author, Bryan Stevenson

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The college responded

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Articles for those want to read more information

Bestselling Authors Band Together to Dunk on a College Student

Sarah Dessen, Jodi Picoult, Use Twitter to Attack Recent Graduate

Cliffs

So a white woman who is 49 threw a hissy fit and set bullies on a student cause her children’s books were deemed not suitable for college students.

No one said her books were sh!t, they just said it wasn’t suitable reading for college students. Instead another book, which focused on the injustice faced by black people in the criminal justice system, was chosen as it was deemed more suitable for college students.

Like I said on twitter, this woman (Sarah Dessen) probably graduated college in 1992, but she wants to throw a hissy fit because her book wasn't liked by a college student (an alumna from a small university in 2017) that was probably still a teen 2 academic years ago (ie, like 2014/2015). This comment is at least 3 years old too (because it was made about the 2016 Committee)!
 
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Smoke Screen

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I am very disappointed in the Black women that jumped in to defend Dessen's temper tantrum. Except Roxanne. I'm not surprised by her.
 

JessicaL

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Wow, I missed all the drama. This is all so ridiculous. I have been saying this about celebrities. They know how to weaponize their fanbase and reach. It's disgusting
Some people tweeted out list of all the authors who supported Dessen. There's some I missed so I'll put them here for future reference.





90% corny generic writers that were on my never read list that are always promoted ad nauseum for their boring ass books. Someone please tell me Temi Oh wasn't involved in this garbage, loved her debut. I'd be so disappointed

Amanda Joy's debut was garbage. She got sympathy ratings because people got it for free and wanted to help out of black author (the irony, she's more concerned about white women). She should be the last one running her mouth.


The university is out of fµck!ng line btw. Imagine doing that to your alumni. You know, the people that paid to keep the place open and donate to improve it for future generations
 

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