Media Men List creator Moira Donegan to publish book on sexual harassment and assault

Moira Donegan, the writer who created a viral list of men in the media alleged to have perpetrated sexual assault or harassment, is writing a book for Scribner.

The book, which doesn’t yet have a title, will be a “primer on sexual harassment and assault as lived experience and moral and political challenge for feminists,” Donegan posted on Twitter.

In a statement to the Cut, Donegan said she was “grateful” to have the chance “to look forward at ways to build a more just, more equitable future.”

“The events of the Me Too movement are just one part of a long history of women’s collective efforts to bring our experiences to light and to give meaning and consequence to the violence that is inflicted on us,” Donegan said.

The so-called Media Men List was created last year by Donegan, who intended it to be privately shared among women in publishing and other media industries. Contributors listed the names of more than 70 men they alleged to have perpetrated sexual assault or harassment before it went viral and was taken down.

Despite being online for less than a day, the list led to the resignations and dismissals of several of the men, most of whom worked in publishing and journalism.

Donegan created the list anonymously, but came forward as its creator in an essay in the Cut in January after she learned that Harper’s magazine was planning to run an article outing her.

Earlier this month, one of the men on the list, author Stephen Elliott, filed a defamation lawsuit against Donegan and the list’s anonymous contributors. Elliott’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York, seeks $1.5 million in damages from Donegan and those who anonymously contributed to the list, which it seeks to identify.

Donegan’s supporters quickly started a GoFundMe page to help pay the writer’s legal bills. The campaign had raised more than $115,000 as of Thursday morning. Donegan will be represented in the lawsuit by Roberta Kaplan, an attorney who co-founded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund.

There is no scheduled publication date as of yet for Donegan’s book, which will be her first.