By Suzanne Trimel
Sharing her deep well of guidance for booksellers and authors dealing with the spike in threats and harassment targeting talks and readings, New York Times bestselling author Samira Ahmed delivered a stunner at a recent PEN America-hosted conversation: She said she now checks into hotels under an alias on book tours after she discovered an individual was calling hotels in the city where she was set to speak to find out where she was staying.
Ahmed offered a trove of lessons learned since 2019, when she began experiencing threats and harassment a year after her first novel for young adults, Love, Hate & Other Filters, was published and became a New York Times bestseller. She spoke to an audience of 60 booksellers, publicists, publishers, librarians and authors at the online gathering this month. Her coming-of-age debut is about an Indian-American Muslim teen who is coping with Islamophobia. Her second novel Internment, set in a fictionalized American future, follows 17-year-old Layla Amin as she and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim Americans.
Ahmed said her most important guidance to authors is this: โThe bookstore, your agent, your publisher, your publicist are all your partners and you really must have a conversation with them about safety.โ
When planning a book event, Ahmed advises bookstores to position staff or volunteers near the book signing table and the entrances and exits. She noted that one bookstore lined up local high school football players for this purpose. While signing books and taking photos, she keeps a physical distance between herself and attendees by leaning across the table for photographs instead of inviting people to stand with her behind the table. She also requests that attendees leave their packages or bags on their chair when they approach the signing table. She shared that, due to credible and escalating threats for a book festival event, her publisher arranged a two-person security team to escort her. Safety doesnโt end when the event does; she also counseled writers to ask their publisher to cover the cost of a car service rather than having to rely on a ride-hailing app.
She noted that while not every author will want or need to adopt her particular practices or routines to feel safe at public events, safety considerations should be foremost in advance planning for any writer who has come under threat.
PEN America hosted the workshop to support authors, bookstores, libraries, and publishers in navigating an increasingly fraught environment where talks are targeted by pressure groups and individuals with the determined goal of silencing writers.
The event builds on PEN Americaโs long history of working directly with authors to protect free expression. Its digital safety programming focuses on helping journalists, writers, and their advocates navigate online harassment and other safety challenges; collaborating with media organizations and publishers, among others, to strengthen safety protocols; and conducting research and advocacy on digital safety and free expression.
In addition to Ahmed, who is on the national leadership team of Authors Against Book Bans, speakers included Yemile Bucay, a partner of the Aegis Safety Alliance and a safety consultant with PEN America, and Philomena Polefrone, associate director of American Booksellers for Free Expression. Tasslyn Magnusson, senior advisor on PEN Americaโs Freedom to Read team, which has tracked more than 16,000 book bans nationwide since 2021, lent expertise gained from her work with authors whose books have been banned and who have experienced harassment.
PEN Americaโs beck Haberstroh, program manager for digital safety training, who moderated the conversation, said while threats against authors have always existed, the problem has spiked with the sweeping book bans in public schools since 2021. Haberstroh said the bans have come with coordinated harassment of authors, particularly targeting young adult and childrenโs book authors, authors of color, and LGBTQ+ authors, as well as the bookstores that carry their books.
โThe growth of the movement to ban books, the changes that tech companies have made to downgrade their safety policies, and the current federal governmentโs aggressive actions have all combined to supercharge the sense of risk that writers, bookstores, librarians, and others in the book world are experiencing.โ
When we see bookstores threatened itโs often because of LGBTQ books, itโs often about books that tell a true history of Black people in the United States, particularly the history of slavery and violence, itโs often books about Palestine, itโs often books by or about politicians that people donโt necessarily agree with,โ said Polefrone, a Columbia Ph.D in English who advocates for intellectual freedom at the American Booksellers Association. โThe range of issues that can lead to some degree of risk has been expanding, for some stores more than others.
While safety considerations may initially seem overwhelming for both stores and authors, PEN Americaโs Viktorya Vilk, director of digital safety and free expression, compared safety planning to insurance. โYou donโt need it until you do. The vast majority of the time, you will feel and be safe. But preparing in advance can actually be empowering, so you feel prepared to deal with individuals and groups who are trying to bully and intimidate you.”
Book events present unique safety challenges because they are usually in-person gatherings, said Polefrone. She noted that bookstores have had to reevaluate staffing over threats and in some cases, have had to screen events or limit event promotion to a storeโs patrons. She said she knew of a small bookstore that invited volunteers just to hang around in the store to watch for any impending trouble. โWith events, you need to be aware of how you organize the space. Exits and entrances. All of this becomes part of advance planning.โ
Bucay, who works with both the Aegis Safety Alliance and PEN America on digital safety, said assessing threats also must take into account physical and digital vandalism, such as someone trying to take down an authorโs or booksellerโs website. โThe goal is the sameโto push people out of the public discourse.โ
She also talked about how to assess whether online harassment is going to manifest in a physical way. She said this takes into account whether threats are coming from identified individuals who are, or could be, physically located near the bookstore in question. โCan they carry out what they say they will do or is the goal to silence me?โ
PEN America, the American Booksellers Association, and others have developed safety resources for dealing with harassment both online and for events, including:
- PEN Americaโs online harassment field manual, offering strategies to assess threats and guidance for authors and journalists to defend themselves
- The Democracy Security Projectโs safety and security advice for events and in other contexts.
- PEN Americaโs tips for librarians facing harassment
- Resources from ABA for bookstores
- The ABA Right to Read Toolkit
- Planning a Secure Drag Story Time Event
- 6 Steps to Help Deal with Curation Protests