I made the mistake of looking at the comment section on a post about Merky Books’ New Writers’ Prize. What did I see? Perhaps you can already predict if you know that the competition is aimed at Black, Asian, and ethnic minority writers. You guessed it: I was drowned in an onslaught of salty white writers leaving spiteful comments about not being able to apply.
Let me address other white writers first: yes, it sucks not being included in something – I get it. I’m also a white writer, often struggling to get my voice out there; I get far more rejections than I do acceptances. It can be endlessly frustrating, especially for new writers who want to get their debut novel published.
But, and let me address all writers now, this is simply the plight of the writer. We all struggle with this. White, black, gay, straight, young, old… every writer struggles with this. This said, white writers are in a privileged position; in 2021, it was reported that over the past 25 years only 6% of shortlisted authors in the UK’s biggest literary awards were black. In 2024, a report by PA found that ‘ethnic minority’ representation across the publishing industry fell by 2% (from 17% to 15%).
Cultural bias still has a firm hold on the literary world. Think of the classic literary works from history and their writers. Who do you picture? I bet Orwell is up there, or Dickens, or F. Scott Fitzgerald. You’re far more likely to imagine Ann Radcliffe or one of the Brontë sisters than Harriet Jacobs or Hannah Crafts when it comes to Gothic works. When it comes to romance, I bet you think of Shakespeare and not Pauline Hopkins. Now, more than ever, we should be highlighting POC stories and start levelling out the playing field. There’s a reason John Agard wrote:
Dem tell me
Dem tell me
Wha dem want to tell me
Bandage up me eye with me own history
Blind me to my own identity
Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat
dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat
But Toussaint L’Ouverture
no dem never tell me bout dat
It’s as simple as this: POC writers deserve to be heard. Every writer should be given the space to thrive – just as other brilliant spaces allow other communities to thrive, such as Mslexia for writers who identify as women, Merky Books is creating opportunities for POC writers. And that is a good thing.
Some of the greatest writers – Benjamin Zephaniah, Toni Morrison, Meera Syal, Arundhati Roy, R.F Kuang – are from a range of BAME backgrounds. These voices need to be heard and celebrated. Reading is all about exploration, learning, and entertainment and a more diverse market allows for more chances to find engaging material which suits your reading needs. As writers, we should be advocating for more diversity, not less. Reading is intrinsically tied to your progress as a writer. We can learn so much from other writers. We can take inspiration from a more varied pool of creatives.
Merky Books is important in tackling the diversity (or lack of) issue and creating more opportunity. We’ve recently seen an explosion in white writers trying to take such opportunities from POC creators by performing as a different race. Last year, a white writer used the name Kim Chi (yes, really) and referred to Asian characters as communicating ‘own voices,’ when trying to get a book deal. Other minorities like the LGBT+ community have also had this problem. For example, we have seen male authors catfishing as lesbian authors in order to sell sapphic novels (one which comes to mind is AC Adams being a false lesbian persona). It seems that these white writers incorrectly presume that being a minority is a quick fix to getting a book deal… but Kim Chi still didn’t get a book deal. All this does is make it harder for real minority groups to be heard.
To reflect a diverse world accurately, to allow equal representation, everyone should be able to have chances to show their talent. Being a writer will always have difficulties, especially when it comes to getting published, but that doesn’t mean anyone should resort to tearing others down.
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