'Entirely consensual': Author Neil Gaiman denies sexual assault report

On Tuesday, bestselling author Neil Gaiman denied allegations of sexual abuse and assault made against him by multiple women and reported in an explosive New York magazine article this week.

In a statement on his website, Gaiman emphatically denied engaging in “nonconsensual sexual activity with anyone.” He wrote that he had stayed quiet about the allegations to avoid drawing attention to “a lot of misinformation,” and characterized his relationships with the women who have alleged that he assaulted them and pressured them to engage in acts against their will as “entirely consensual.”

Accounts about Gaiman began to surface last summer when multiple women came forward on a podcast produced by Tortoise Media and accused the author of sexually assaulting them. But a much more detailed and disturbing series of accounts by multiple women who allege that Gaiman raped, pressured, abused and assaulted them was published by New York magazine Monday. The article describes alleged abusive behaviour by Gaiman toward women who claim he forced them to perform degrading acts, including licking vomit off his lap, and in some cases pressured them into sexual situations while his young son was present in the room.

Some prominent writers — among them J K Rowling, Jeff VanderMeer, Maureen Johnson and Naomi Alderman — denounced Gaiman’s behaviour and criticised the literary world’s tepid response to the allegations. Others suggested that prize committees should rescind some of Gaiman’s literary awards. Some booksellers wondered whether they should stop carrying his books, which have sold tens of millions of copies globally and include children’s books, comics and beloved fantasy novels such as American Gods and The Graveyard Book. Appalled fans vowed they would no longer buy or read Gaiman’s work.

While some of Gaiman’s television and film projects were dropped following the initial allegations, the responses from his publishers, agents and professional collaborators have been far more subdued.

Gaiman’s lawyers did not respond to a request for further comment.

HarperCollins, which has published many of his most notable works, and Marvel, the comic book publisher, have no new books forthcoming with Gaiman, according to representatives from the companies.

His literary agent at Writers House, which represents blockbuster authors including Dav Pilkey, Nora Roberts and Ally Condie, did not respond to requests for comment about whether the agency would continue to represent him. Norton, which published an illustrated edition of Gaiman’s Norse Mythology last November, did not respond when asked whether the company would publish Gaiman’s works in the future. DC Comics, which published his blockbuster comic book The Sandman, along with other works, declined to comment when asked whether DC would continue to publish him.

For some of the women who have accused Gaiman of misconduct, the muted responses from his publishers and collaborators are a bitter disappointment.

Katherine Kendall, 36, was one of the women interviewed by Lila Shapiro for the New York magazine story. She met Gaiman when she was 22, while volunteering at one of his book events in Asheville, North Carolina, where she still lives. She described how, at another reading, 10 months later, Gaiman — whom she’d grown up reading and admiring — pulled her to the back of his tour bus and “lay on top of her.” According to Kendall, he said, “Kiss me like you mean it” and “I’m used to getting what I want.”

According to the article, Gaiman later gave Kendall $60,000 to pay for therapy in an attempt, as he put it in a recorded phone call, to “make up some of the damage.”

In the comment posted Tuesday, Gaiman did not address specific allegations, but said that he reviewed the messages he exchanged with some of the women “following the occasions that have subsequently been reported as being abusive,” and that the messages reflect “entirely consensual sexual relationships” that “seemed positive and happy on both sides.”

In an interview with the Times, Kendall described the “culture of secrecy” around Gaiman. “Neil’s works were his bait, and promotional events were his hunting ground,” she said. “As long as his publishers and professional collaborators remain silent, Neil will continue to have unrestricted access to vulnerable women.”

Kendra Stout, another of the women, told the magazine that in 2007, Gaiman forced her to have sex with him while she “had developed a UTI that had gotten so bad she couldn’t sit down.” The article states that this past October, Stout filed a police report in which she accused Gaiman of raping her.

“The silence of the community around him — his fandom, his publishers — is loud and disturbing,” Stout said in an interview with the Times. “I’ve heard that it was an open secret that he was a predator, but that whisper network did not reach me.”

Some booksellers were torn over whether they should continue to stock Gaiman’s books. Lauren Nopenz, manager and buyer at Curious Iguana, a bookstore in Frederick, Maryland, said the store would no longer carry Gaiman’s books on its shelves, but would order copies for customers who request them. “We don’t want anyone to come into the store and see books that make them feel uncomfortable,” Nopenz said. Sarah Bagby, the owner of Watermark Books in Wichita, Kansas, said her store would keep selling Gaiman’s work as long as there was customer demand, but might not promote his books heavily. “It’s a predicament, but we’ll carry him,” she said.

On social media, a number of authors expressed their shock and horror over the allegations. But some authors who were friends of Gaiman’s held back. Married writers Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon, who hosted Gaiman’s 2011 wedding to musician-writer Amanda Palmer at their home, said they were still processing the reports.

“I’m just trying to absorb all this and don’t know what to say,” Waldman wrote in an email.

Chabon responded similarly: “I just don’t have it in me to talk about it.”

Palmer, who separated from Gaiman several years ago, declined to comment through a spokesperson, who said that “while Ms. Palmer is profoundly disturbed by the allegations that Mr. Gaiman has abused several women, at this time her primary concern is, and must remain, the well-being of her son and therefore, to guard his privacy, she has no comment on these allegations.”

After Gaiman published his statement, in which he noted that “I could have and should have done so much better” in his relationships with women, some of the women who have come forward said they were let down but not surprised.

Stout shared a statement from several of them — a few couldn’t be reached — responding to Gaiman’s post. It read, “We are disappointed to see the same non-apology that women in this situation have seen so many times before.”