In an Apple TV Plus program scheduled to air on Friday, Oprah Winfrey and American Dirt author Jeanine Cummins addressed concerns about the novel that critics have accused of stereotyping and cultural appropriation, the Associated Press reports.
Winfrey selected Cummins’ novel for her influential book club in January, after it was savaged in reviews by writer Myriam Gurba and New York Times critic Parul Sehgal.
During the Apple TV Plus program, Washington Post columnist Esther Cepeda criticized Winfrey for the lack of Latinx authors in her book club. “I am guilty of not looking for Latinx writers,” Winfrey admitted. “I will now, because my eyes have been opened to see, to behave differently.”
Cummins, for her part, said she regretted including an author’s note in the novel in which she said that a “browner” author might have been a better choice to write the novel.
In an interview with the AP, Cummins said the conversation was “civil” and “productive.”
“I really understood where they were coming from, the women who were there in opposition to the book,” she said. “I hope that they also understood where I was coming from.”
Winfrey pledged to pay more attention to the kinds of authors she selects for her book club.
“I’m not going to play it safer, but I’m not going to wade into water if I don’t have to,” she said. “This has taken up a lot of my energy, a lot of [Cummins’] energy, and it’s taken the attention away from the real reason I want people to read books.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
