There has been a lot of discussion on line about the actions that Shambhala Publications needs to take in regards to The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns. Here is a selection of some. Please feel free to add more in the comments.
Shambhala Publications has the ethical responsibility to:
- Change the book title to in no way claim that these are the words of nuns. For example, replacing “Poems from the Early Buddhist Nuns” with “Poems inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns.”
- Remove the Pali language names at the top of each poem since placing their names there explicitly implies these are their words.
- Issue a public apology for misleading the public and all the people asked to endorse the book.
- Offer a full refund to anyone who purchased the book under false pretenses.
- Notify the Library of Congress that as a publisher they knowingly submitted false publication data calling it a translation.
- Notify every library around the world that has purchased the book that Shambhala knowingly submitted false classification data and ask that they reclasify the book not as a translation but as original poetry.
- Explain why editors chose to publish a book of original poetry against Shambhala’s own policy of not publishing original poetry
- Allow all the book endorsers to either remove or replace their endorsements, including inside the print book, the electronic book, the Shambhala book page, the Amazon page, and any other place the endorsements exist online.