The public outcry against the Texas Library Association’s decision to revoke their invitation to Dr. Chuck Tingle to participate on their annual conference program, including expressions of support from Neil Gaiman and Ursula Vernon, as well as TJ Klune’s announcement that he would refuse his own invitation, has prompted the organization to apologize and renew their invitation to Tingle; however, he says he will not accept.

On January 10 the Texas Library Association’s executive director Shirley Robinson published a “TLA Statement Regarding Author Chuck Tingle” on the organization’s website which says they want him to reconsider participating in their annual conference. But the statement said nothing one way or the other about him going masked, which the group had contended was the issue.

As you may know, the Texas Library Association is currently planning and securing speakers for our annual conference in April. Last fall, we extended an initial invitation to author Chuck Tingle to participate as a panelist at our Evening with Authors event. We later offered Mr. Tingle the opportunity to participate in a different conference event.

This was a misstep that we regret, and it is counter to our mission to ‘unite and amplify voices…through intentional equity, diversity, and inclusion.’

I contacted Mr. Tingle’s publisher today to apologize and to ask whether or not he might reconsider participating in our Evening with Authors event. I hope Mr. Tingle will accept, and we can discuss what has transpired so that we may all come to a place of greater understanding.

TLA has spent the last two years fighting for the freedom to read and freedom of knowledge in school libraries, and we are always on the side of authors. We set a high standard for ourselves, and in this instance, we did not meet it. In the future, we will be more diligent in our processes and clearer and more thoughtful when discussing opportunities with potential speakers at our events. I am sorry for this mistake. We will learn from this and do better in the future.

Today, Dr. Chuck Tingle responded on Tumblr (and his other social media accounts) saying he appreciated their apology, but “very sincerely, thank you, but i will have to decline the re-invitation. maybe next year’”.

Here is Tingle’s complete statement:

[Thanks to Anne Marble for the story.]