EDGE’s Official Reply on WFC Incident

As some of you might have heard, the harasser at World Fantasy claimed to work for EDGE Publishing, and was soliciting manuscripts for them. Recently, rumors have spread that someone at EDGE protected the harasser and was responsible for him being allowed to stay.

I have just gotten off the phone with Anita Hades, who confirmed what I had heard about the situation before the rumors started.

1.) The aggressor has one story published in an EDGE anthology: Evolve 2, edited by Nancy Kilpatrick. He has no further involvement with them, and he does not work for them in an editorial capacity.

2.) When I first saw his claims, I spoke with Anita and Brian, the owners, who were extremely upset that he was slandering them with his false claims of employment. At the time, we discussed rearranging the EDGE readings that night so that he would not be involved. Ron and Val Ontell were the ones with the ultimate say whether or not he would be evicted, and they elected to give him another chance.

3.) When we found out that he had been given another chance, Anita came to me, very upset. At the time, there was nothing more that they could do without potentially causing a scene. Because he is not their employee, they did not have the grounds to exclude him. WFC policy states that a room rented from them has to be open to all convention members.

4.) When the situation was resolved, both Brian and Anita thanked the Ontells and me for having resolved the issue.

5.)EDGE does not tolerate this sort of behavior. The person in question will not be published by them, allowed into EDGE-run events, or supported in any capacity.

If you have any more questions about this, please feel free to let me know.