Now-disgraced author Blake Bailey is writing a new book about his so-called experiences with “cancel-culture” after his biography of Philip Roth hit the shelves and was quickly dropped by publisher W.W. Norton when rape and sexual assault allegations toward Bailey surfaced in 2021. His new book, Repellent, is being published by Skyhorse publishing, a company that has a controversial past and has also published books by deniers of Sandy Hook and other conspiracies. The publisher claims that sexual assault allegations are not why Norton ceased printing Bailey’s Roth biography. Skyhorse claimed there was something more sinister at work.
Bailey has ties to Old Dominion University with the Virginian-Pilot calling him an “ODU Star” in an article about his sexual assault allegations at the university dating back to 2012. During his time working at Old Dominion, he served as the Mina Hohenberg Darden Chair in Creative Writing. Bailey was accused by over two dozen people at Old Dominion of sexual misconduct over the six years he was employed at the university. Some of these persons include a professor at Old Dominion, a visiting writer, as well as graduate students. A professor at the university even states that Mr. Bailey cornered her in an English Department mailroom, causing her to pull out a knife in order to defend herself. Although Bailey and his lawyers deny this incident occured, the professor received counseling by the university over the incident. Many say that Old Dominion could have done more about Bailey’s behavior. The university said in a 97 page statement in 2021 that these concerns were brought up to higher-ups in the university but never considered further by the university’s office of Institutional Equity and Diversity.
Furthermore, allegations against the author go back further than these incidents. Bailey was a middle school teacher in New Orleans before his time at Old Dominion. According to the New York Times, he has troubling accusations from some of his former middle school students; the students mentioned that after they had become adults, Bailey had located and contacted them in inappropriate ways via social media. This is unsettling for his old students because it leaves them wondering whether or not Bailey had the same inappropriate thoughts about them as children. According to The Virginian Pilot, Old Dominion University stated that if they had known of these allegations prior to Bailey joining the campus community, he would have “never stepped foot on campus”. This raises the question whether the university conducts thorough background checks before hiring professors.
As of January 2023, Bailey has not been charged with a crime and his new book can be purchased online. It will be interesting to see whether or not his new book will also be taken the off shelves or if he will ever face consequences for his actions.