Safe Travels

A few months ago, a colleague of mine and I had a curious exchange with a writer whose work we wanted to publish in the Literary Review of Canada. The writer declined the opportunity, citing as his reason an article we had run that he said contributed to violence against women. I was taken aback, being of a demographic and moral persuasion that is, generally speaking, pretty hostile to the idea of violence against women. We wracked our collective brains, but the matter remains a mystery (though I have now perhaps inadvertently launched a very unfortunate sort of reader contest), all the more so because our man the writer, in a sudden show of restraint, chose not to ’splain any further.

Violence is defined broadly these days, but even by some of the broader definitions, the Literary Review of Canada seems an unlikely promoter. The notion that this is an inhospitable environment for a writer who believes in respectful treatment of women would come as a...