I’ve updated this post to add Mr. Collins’ response from Facebook.

Last weekend, the Shamus Awards were presented. There were comments made at that event that have since been the subject of some discussion. They’re described below. 

For context, I don’t know Max Allan Collins, so I can’t speak to his intentions or why he made the comment he did. I can, however, talk about my own experience. 

Five years ago, I wrote a blog post that concerned an author who is a woman of color. In that post, I used a word that could be construed as racist. The incident I wrote about got quite a bit of media attention, and I quickly became the target of a twitter mob. I will never forget the evening I was eating dinner and my phone started buzzing like its life depended on it with notifications, including some scary threats.

But some people (one in particular) were willing to talk with me. To discuss how and why I chose that word, which gave me the opportunity to consider this, to recognize what I had done wrong, why, and why it was hurtful, and change and grow as a person. I was allowed to apologize and to learn from my actions, which meant I didn’t have to take cover in justification. I am, and will always be, grateful for that. 

Fast forward to last weekend. At the Shamus Awards, this happened:

To be clear, the Shamus Awards are run by The Private Eye Writers of America. They choose to have their awards ceremony off-site during Bouchercon. Bouchercon participates in letting attendees know about their event (which requires a separate ticket), but has no control whatsoever over or formal relationships with the PWA, and one does not need to be attending Bouchercon to attend their event.  

As I write this, Mr. Collins has yet to comment. One of the people who does know him and has defended him on social media said she thought this was a “crack” aimed at his friend Robert Randisi, the Executive Director of the PWA. Apparently it’s some kind of long-standing joke between the two of them. Several people who were there said that when someone tried to talk with Mr. Collins about the comment at the event, his response was to tell them to, “lighten up.”

Edited to add: Mr. Collins responded to one of the Facebook posts. His response is below.

I believe that people can grow. Can change. Can learn. Can apologize. I hope that Mr. Collins takes this opportunity to do that. I hope that he is able to understand that readers want amazing stories, and welcoming new voices to our bookshelves is a singular joy. That the professional success he enjoys doesn’t come solely from the John Smiths of the world. 

Having spent many years in corporate communications, including crisis communications, I have a bunch of marketing thoughts about this in terms of Mr, Collins, the PWA, and Bouchercon. They’re not the point here, but I mention it because they’re all doing a terrible job of communicating around this. Or not, as the case is for a couple of them. But that’s their prerogative. 

As a reader, I will say this: The appearance of naked xenophobia in the crime fiction community is ugly. It is not reflective of the world of readers, writers, publishers, editors, booksellers, critics, librarians, and others that I know and love. I was not at Bouchercon (and would not have been at the PWA event even if I had been), so I’m grateful to John McDougall for bringing this to light, giving us the opportunity to discuss it. And I hope we continue to do so.