Thread by @Welcome2Sumiko

HEADS UP to #amquerying authors! @KereahEKeller just announced that she’s now an editor at BSC Publishing Group and is now soliciting queries under the guise of being a traditional publisher. BEWARE of this publisher before you submit! Thread. 1/20

@KereahEKeller was a client of @brestephens (Yes, that Bre Stephens), and upon further examination of this BSC Publishing Group that she is suddenly the editor of, you’ll find that they are the publisher of The Dark Sire literary magazine. 2/20

What’s that you ask? Well, boy, let me tell you, The Dark Sire Literary Magazine is the very magazine founded by @BreLStephens ! 3/20

Looks to me like disgraced agent @BreLStephens is back and is now soliciting queries from unsuspecting authors, under the guise of being a traditional publishing house and she has her ex-client on board as an editor. 4/20

I want to issue an extra word of caution to BIPOC authors who might be thinking about querying this publisher and @KereahEKeller personally. Though this publisher appears to be BIPOC friendly on the surface, neither this publisher nor Kereah passes the vibes check on that. 5/20

@KereahEKeller is a white woman who has written many books centered around Japanese folklore, culture, with Japanese characters, taking place in Japan. One look at her published work and you’ll find some deeply concerning and racist portrays of Japanese people and culture. 6/20

From her WIP pitches, to her twitter profile, to her website it’s clear that @KereahKEller almost exclusively writes books centered around Japan, Japanese culture and the shinto religion, many of her MCs are Japanese, despite her being a white woman herself. 7/20

And while questions of how and why this white woman thinks she’s the best person to represent Japanese voices in literature arises, it’s far more concerning when her representation of Japanese people and culture in her books is so, extremely racist. 8/20

Here are excerpts from @KereahEKeller’s novel, “Mark of A Favor,” published in Oct 2020 under the name Kaitlyn Keller. In just the first few pages, the MC, a blonde haired, blued eyed white girl who just transferred to Japan, sneers in contempt at her Japanese classmates 9/20

Here are excerpts from @KereahEKeller’s novel, “Mark of A Favor,” published in Oct 2020 under the name Kaitlyn Keller. In just the first few pages, the MC, a blonde haired, blued eyed white girl who just transferred to Japan, sneers in contempt at her Japanese classmates 9/20

This portrayal depicts the Japanese students as being unrefined, lewd and literally closer to animals than humans in comparison to the white girl protagonist. And pushes the stereotype that all Japanese are sex-crazed deviants who draws pornography (anime style, of course) 10/20

In this excerpt which she literally describes the Japanese students as “untamed lunatics”. Yes, She Actually Wrote That! 11/20

Next, she goes on to describe one of the Japanese students as having a tangible “Asian accent,” WTF is an “Asian Accent”? 12/20

It gets worse. Enter the main character’s homeroom teacher, a Japanese woman teaching at a prestigious international school in Japan, who speaks in broken English reminiscent of the days Asians were portrayed by White actors in racist old Hollywood (take a look):
13/20

The general take on Japanese people in this book is that they are comically, and buffoonish-ly superstitious in comparison to the calm, collected, and reasonable white girl who can form complete sentences and expressed nuanced thoughts unlike her Japanese classmates 14/20

This makes me question whether or not @KereahKEller has ever actually met and spoken to an actual Japanese person? Or does she just watch anime and thinks that makes her a cultured white woman? FFS. 15/20

And the icing on the cake is this exchange with our stereotypical Japanese lady (TM) representative, the homeroom teacher. @KereahEKeller really went out of her way to make sure she checked every single box of the Racist Asian Portrayal check list. 16/20

Broken English? Check! Talk about meditation or any other eastern holistic spiritual practice? Check! Talk about evil sprits and other woo-woo stuff? Check! Talk about lucky cat (siiiigh)? Check! Talk about Yokai? Check!! 17/20

Honestly, I’m surprised Japanese Lady-San didn’t whip out a roll of sushi and offer it up to the MC with a pair of chopsticks all ready to go, at this point. This is just a few excerpts from one of @KereahEKeller’s books, there's more where this comes from 18/20

All of this is to say, BIPOCs think carefully before sending your work to this publisher. Someone like @KereahEKeller, who has displayed an obvious contempt for the people whose culture she insists on appropriating off of is not the kind of person you want editing your book 19/20

Again, do your research, protect yourself and your work.
@Madeline_Pine @AmandaWoody_ @EsmeSymesSmith
are great friends to #amquerying authors and the #WritingCommunity as a whole. Check them out for resources. Seriously RESEARCH. You owe it to yourself and your career! FIN

Adding a tweet because I forgot to post this excerpt with tweet 10/20 in the thread. As you can see, Keller goes into great detail to describe the Japanese students as circus animals, literally calling them "monkeys."

UPDATE: It looks to me like Kereah has finally made a statement on all this. She claims she will be "rewriting the scenes so it's not offensive" (for real). She's blocked me so I can't respond to her directly, but in the interest of education I want to say this:

Deleting and re-writing racist scenes against a marginalized group of people does not solve the problem. It doesn't make you any less racist, it only makes you more aware of how to hide your racism.

Folklores and portrayals of a group of people and their customs should be treated with respect. Before writing stories that should be told by the voices of a marginalized group to which we don't belong, we should examine why we feel we have the right to do so.

Bottomline is, if you don't belong to that marginalized group, don't go into that space and try to tell their stories and then do it badly and in a racist way. That is harmful. Instead support BIPOC's work and listen to them tell their own stories. That is what a true ally does!

I'm glad to see that people are signal boosting this thread but please also signal boost this important thread by an AAPI author on how to respectfully write AAPI rep It's just as important to discuss how to do it right, when pointing out the wrong.

https://twitter.com/TheEvaline/status/1491766863931617287