'Where are the brown people?': authors slam lack of diversity in UK publishing

Nikesh Shukla calls industry’s backtracking ‘a perfect loop-de-loop of blame’ as he is joined by Jon McGregor in a groundswell of readers and authors demanding more diverse representationMan Booker winner Marlon James: ‘Writers of colour pander to the white woman’Authors Nikesh Shukla and Jon McGregor have launched separate, scathing attacks on UK publishing for its failure to take diversity seriously, with Shukla asking “where are the brown people?” and McGregor slamming the eliteness of an industry which “work[s] to perpetuate an environment in which their own sort feel at home”.The broadside from the two writers follows the Writing the Future report, which found back in April that “an old mono-culture still prevails”, in British publishing, and called for change. But Shukla, who has led a groundswell of anger about the issue on social media after he highlighted the fact that the list of titles announced for 2016 World Book Night failed to include a single BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) writer, said that publishing as a whole was keen to shift the blame elsewhere. Related: World Book Night criticised for all-white 2016 giveaway list Related: Battling bias on the shop floor: how bookstores can support diversity Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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