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

[beijing_saigon]

Can’t be bothered to read that Twitter mess lol. I don’t think authors should only write from their ”position” obviously because then almost every book would be white straight etc and it can be done in a way that is not offensive or crossing a line. But I also prefer to read ”own voices” books about the things that include me like LGBT books. It sometimes makes me kind of uncomfortable when I’m watching a booktube video and the booktuber only lists all the kind of representation a book has but doesn’t go into it like ”this book had good anxiety/lesbian/etc rep” but doesn’t actually go into it like ”the main character has anxiety and it affects her this way”, it just seems so superficial like they only care enough to say the bare minimum. Also booktube hypes problematic books like Call me by your name just because ”it has a cute gay romance!!” like no. It wasn’t cute

[koushiba]

We need more diverse authors being published dear god

[koushiba]

But also maybe we can get more indigenous authors published first lmao.

[sassalicious]

Any specific author/book recommendations from indigenous writers?

[koushiba]

https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/116181985.html :)

[stigmatize]

team nobody

[ext_2796703]

I think we are slowly reaching the point where celebrities will stop having social media.

[purple3purple]

I think “POV” is the issue here. I think white writers as a generalization can lack a nuanced understanding of the POC experience in terms of writing about it from a POC perspective. I think POC writers should be amplified. On the other hand I don’t think there should be any rules about this.

[spankmypirate]

Yeah I agree. I think that the issue is that there are too many white authors writing characters of colour & minorities lazily and it's becoming a big problem. I think that if white authors want to be more inclusive in their storytelling that it should be a good thing, but they should do their research and not just rely on stereotypes or flimsy tropes. Otherwise it's just pandering and a lazy way of simply just trying to get cred rather than creating anything meaningful.

[veracity]

A lot of romance writers have been discussing this recently, even before RWA exploded, because it's disingenuous to try and write the POV (often first person). A white person can absolutely write a well-written book, but don't pretend to understand the issues in the text being written if you haven't experienced what's being centered as critical to character development.