Books|Barnes & Noble Reverses Course on Redesigned Book Covers
The bookseller planned to promote classic novels with covers featuring people of color for Black History Month. Critics accused it of “literary blackface.”
Barnes & Noble said Wednesday that it would cancel its plans to promote classic novels featuring covers with people of color, after criticism from writers and others in publishing that it was a misguided attempt at diversifying its shelves.
For the project, called Diverse Editions and intended “to raise awareness and discussion during Black History Month,” the bookseller worked with Penguin Random House and used artificial intelligence to look through 100 books — including “The Secret Garden,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Moby-Dick” — that it said made no reference to the race of their characters. Artists then created limited-edition covers for 12, reimagining the characters as people of color.
Each book received five different covers depicting ethnically diverse characters. The covers for “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” for instance, included one featuring an Asian Dorothy with a pink dress, as well as black and Native American versions of the character. Barnes & Noble planned to promote the redesigned books at one of its biggest stores, on New York City’s Fifth Avenue, and at a panel session on diversity Wednesday evening.
But the project quickly encountered criticism from writers who questioned why these books were promoted instead of ones written by or featuring African-Americans. The writer Rod T. Faulkner called the project “literary blackface” in a Medium essay. On Twitter, Angie Thomas, the author of the young-adult novel “The Hate U Give,” wrote that the company should instead: “Promote books by authors of color. Just a thought.”
“We acknowledge the voices who have expressed concerns about the Diverse Editions project at our Barnes & Noble Fifth Avenue store and have decided to suspend the initiative,” Barnes & Noble said in a statement. “The covers are not a substitute for black voices or writers of color, whose work and voices deserve to be heard.”
Penguin Random House didn’t respond to a request for comment, and Barnes & Noble canceled Wednesday’s panel session.
MK Asante, an author who was scheduled to participate in the panel, said he was critical of the project. “What I was going to do is talk about the history of black voices in literature,” he said, “the importance of black voices in literature, the importance of not changing the cover, but changing the content, changing the way that we think about a classic. What is a classic? Classic to whom?”
The backlash to Barnes & Noble’s initiative was the latest challenge the publishing and literary worlds have faced over how they approach race and diversity. The novel “American Dirt,” which came out last month, has been criticized as inaccurately depicting Mexican culture and immigrants and benefiting from an industry that doesn’t recognize Latinx writers.
Late last year, the Romance Writers of America, a trade organization, was roiled by disputes over how it handled a racism complaint by one of its members and for what many romance writers considered the longstanding marginalization of writers of color within the genre.
Earlier this week, several Latinx writers — including Roberto Lovato, Myriam Gurba and David Bowles — met with executives at Flatiron Books, the publisher of “American Dirt,” and its parent company, Macmillan. Flatiron subsequently said it would “substantially increase Latinx representation across Macmillan, including authors, titles, staff and our overall literary ecosystem.”
Barnes & Noble, in its statement, said its stores nationally would “continue to highlight a wide selection of books to celebrate black history and great literature from writers of color.”
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