How To Cancel A Poet: Emmalea Russo’s "chain of contamination”

The Unspeakable Podcast

“While some might argue that collaboration with fascists, TERFs, and racist edgelords does not constitute endorsement of violent and anti-liberation views, we disagree. There can be no innocent collaboration with such people.”

That was the official statement from Hiding Press, the small, independent poetry press that was set to publish writer Emmalea Russo’s fourth book of poetry. But when word got out that she had been “collaborating” with the wrong people, they canceled the book. By collaborations, they meant writing for certain journals and appearing as a guest on certain podcasts. By alt-right or fascist-adjacent they were talking about magazines like Compact, a publication that, according to its mission statement, “seeks a new political center devoted to the common good.”

In this conversation, Emmalea talks about the “chain of contamination” that causes panic and public disassociation with anyone even remotely associated with someone designated as “bad.” She also discusses her forthcoming novel, Vivienne, which is about a septuagenarian artist who’s canceled online over rumor and innuendo.

GUEST BIO

Emmalea Russo is a writer and astrologer. Her books of poetry are G, Wave Archive, Confetti, and Magenta. Recent work has appeared in Artforum, BOMB, Spike Art Magazine, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Her first novel, Vivienne, is forthcoming in September.

Read her piece in Compact Magazine, Purity Policing Is Poison To Poetry.

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