Indie Publisher Drops Author Over Twitter Dispute Regarding OwnVoices

[zodgory]

Another day of drama on book twitter though the current argument is about who can write what. It all started when writer Alisha Hillam tweeted about how white authors shouldn't write from the POV of non-white characters and should have sensitivity readers. This also goes for cis/het authors writing LGBT+ characters and abled authors writing

Comments

[musicnkisses]

Ask a WOC about her experiences. If you can’t do that then do independent research. I don’t think the solution is to give up and not write/write about two white women instead.

[ms_mmelissa]

Honestly just read more works by women of colour. The more you see the way they do or don't write about race the easier it will be for you.

It also depends which race and nationality you want your character to be. You know like Zadie Smith is very different from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is different from Tayari Jones even though they are all black women who write contemporary fiction.

Or like another common mistake I see is people writing "Latino" or "indigenous" characters and not specifying their background as if those descriptors are monoliths. If you don't know enough to know that they would have more specific backgrounds (or to know why they WOULDN'T know their specific background) you either need to do more research or leave those characters alone.

[senshicalico]

being just blanket "latino" is so grating. It also annoys me when a character is referred to as "African" like... from where? Not even a generic region like southern, eastern, northern, or western?? Come the fuck on.

[chrryblssmninja]

I'd say go for it!

as long as you have research, specificity (in culture, setting, etc), and feedback from people of the backgrounds you're writing about, I have the feeling you'll do well in making your characters into diverse people and not tokens. Good luck!

[veracity]

If you're looking for a romance guideline, check out Rebekah Weatherspoon, Katrina Jackson, and Alyssa Cole's Twitters. They often retweet and talk about writing Black women romance. Each have a large network of diverse Black women writers to read and see the experience.

I will say that Katrina posted this last year: https://twitter.com/katrinajax/status/1171062197679771650.