A Statement from Atlas + Alice’s EIC

A Statement from Atlas + Alice’s EIC

It has come to my attention that a past contributor to A+A was recently barred for life from teaching in Florida public schools due to inappropriate communication with one of his students. This incident took place within the past year, yet I did not learn of it until this week.

As the editor of a journal that aims to be a place where writers can feel safe from harassment, I take this news seriously. This abuse of power, particularly between an adult teacher and a child student, is abhorrent.

Though I (and everyone at A+A) value the concept of separating artist from art, I also value the bravery of victims who risk their reputations and safety to speak up. As such, I am in the process of removing this author’s work from our site and digital magazine.

Within A+A’s standard publishing agreement is the statement, “Atlas & Alice reserves the right not to publish the piece.” Though these are words typically linked to editing disagreements between editor and author, as a publication, we also ask that our authors agree that none of their work or associations include “unlawful matter.” In this case, as news reports show, the author in question has done more than enough for us to exercise our rights to remove his work from A+A.

Though our actions will not lessen the pain I’m sure this author caused, I do hope they send the message that our journal will not stand for such behavior.

On a personal note, I would also like to apologize for interviewing said author for a different website. I had no idea of this writer’s circumstance when his publicist contacted me. Had I been aware, our correspondence wouldn’t have occurred.

Thank you for reading this, and for being a supporter of A+A.

— Ben