A few weeks after his debut was pulled for plagiarism, novelist Quentin Rowan has written “Confessions of a Plagiarist” for The Fix, a website dedicated to addiction and recovery.
“Here I am, ready to dodge bullets from the folks in the comments section. Fire away,” he wrote in the essay. Rowan published Assassin of Secrets under the pen name Q.R. Markham, lifting passages from numerous spy novels into his well-reviewed novel. In the essay, the disgraced writer talked about his time in Alcoholics Anonymous and detailed the personal fallout from the scandal.
Check it out: “But in a very short period of time—we’re talking hours—the revelation of my crimes turned my life upside-down. I lost my job in the Brooklyn bookstore where I was a part owner, my beautiful girlfriend left me (and the apartment we were going to share), and my future in the only field I know anything about, books, came to ignominious end. Many of my friends and associates turned their backs on me right away. Others stepped forward to provide comfort and solace. Some felt like they had probably never truly known me and it made them uncomfortable.” (Via Sarah Weinman)