Over 450 Writers, Including Stephen King And Michael Chabon, Sign Petition Against Trump

Pulitzer and National Book Critics Circle winners call out Trump’s “nativism and bigotry.”
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Stephen King and Michael Chabon are among the writers who signed an open letter to the American people, addressing their concerns about Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Published today on Literary Hub, the letter reads, “we, the undersigned, as a matter of conscience, oppose, unequivocally, the candidacy of Donald J. Trump for the Presidency of the United States.”

“Because we believe that knowledge, experience, flexibility, and historical awareness are indispensable in a leader,” a portion of the letter reads. “Because the history of dictatorship is the history of manipulation and division, demagoguery and lies.”

In addition to the above mentioned writers, it was signed by Celeste Ng, Lydia Davis, Rick Moody, Rebecca Solnit, Lauren Groff, Jennifer Egan, Anthony Marra, and over 400 others. While the majority of signees are New York-based writers, a number hail from or currently live in traditionally red states, including Louisiana and Mississippi. Five of the signees currently live in Texas.

This is not the first time in recent history that creative writers have banded together against a noxious force. In 2014, over 900 authors signed a petition that ran as a full-page New York Times ad, speaking out against Amazon, which they described as a threat to the book publishing industry.

A number of those who’ve signed the letter have expressed their views of Trump on social media already. Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You, quipped during a precursor to Trump’s foreign policy discussion that the introduction was a “trigger warning."

Lauren Groff, author of the National Book Award-nominated Fates and Furies joked, “If you're in a relationship with a Trump supporter, now's the time to pull the full Lysistrata on their sorry asses.”

The open letter, however, provides a space for the writers to express their worry in earnest. Read it in full here.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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