LITHUB ESSAY ABOUT PLAGIARISM LOOKS VERY PLAGIARIZED
This morning, LitHub published an essay titled “I Plagiarized Parts of My Debut Novel. Here’s Why.” The first-person account was from fiction writer Jumi Bello and detailed how her debut release, The Leaving, which was scheduled to come out July 12, was canceled by its publisher Riverhead, after they learned that sections had been plagiarized.
According to Publisher’s Lunch, which reported on the cancellation in February, the book ... had appeared on “multiple anticipated lists.” In her essay, Bello claimed she came clean about lifting lines from other writers, losing the book deal in the process.
Bello’s essay explored the origins of plagiarism, and her specific experience with it, which she tied indirectly to a history of mental illness. After a stay in a psychiatric ward and an allergic reaction to an antidepressant, Bello found herself pressed to deliver on her manuscript: “I just want to get through it, to a place where I can sleep again. Looking back on this moment, I ignored my instincts. I ignored the voice inside that said quietly, this is wrong wrong wrong.”
By mid-morning Monday, however, the article had been removed. It now loads to an error page. ...
LitHub did not immediately return Gawker’s request for comment, and neither Bello’s website nor her Twitter profile include contact information. But the writer Kristen Arnett, a fellow Riverhead author, noted on Twitter that parts of the text about plagiarism’s etymological origins appeared to closely resemble other articles on the history of plagiarism. ...