An Update on UDP and SPD
UPDATE March 10, 2021: We are encouraged to hear that structural changes are underway at SPD. But we are concerned by conflicting reports about how the decision is being made whether and when to share the results of the report. We understand that this choice was promised to the staff, which seems right to us. We have written to the SPD board to call on them to release whatever part of the OIG report the staff wishes to release publicly, and to do so immediately.
Monday, March 8, 2021
We have heard the calls for public statements regarding the accusations — made by Damaged Book Worker, J Worthen, and others — of abusive and hostile behavior by SPD (our main distributor) and specifically by the executive director, Brent Cunningham, who is a UDP author. We understand that not posting on social media can lead to a perception of silence, but to write a statement that fairly reflects the diversity of views and proposed responses among our collective and staff, while also reflecting the points on which we deeply agree, is a necessarily slow and complex process. We are talking about this every day, and take these accusations very seriously. Our own actions since the accusations first came to light include: reaching out to SPD staff and board; writing multiple times to the SPD board to state our support for, and insist on the urgency of, the five requests in the Statement from SPD Staff; having conversations internally both about how to continue to respond to what is happening at SPD and about our own workplace conditions; writing to all our authors and translators; conferring with fellow publishers; and actively considering other distribution models — in the case that SPD fails to repair the breakdown of trust in the organization — that would allow us to continue to support our authors and serve our readers while honoring commitments to our staff.
UDP’s working relationship with SPD goes back 18 years and more than 200 books. SPD plays an important role in making small press books available to a wider audience than any one publisher could reach, and there is no clear, mission-driven alternative with a commitment to distributing books like the ones we publish. We understand that there will be new announcements from SPD this week, and we hope those announcements will allow us to move further toward making a decision about what to do.
yrs,
The Ugly Duckling Presse Collective
collective@uglyducklingpresse.org
