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People sometimes ask why I don’t publish my writing anymore. Here’s a few reasons:
When I was nominated for the Orange Prize a memo went round saying a woman like me should never be included again. Apparently my appearance and life experiences were
When I was nominated for the Orange Prize a memo went round saying a woman like me should never be included again. Apparently my appearance and life experiences were
considered unsuitable.
At an Orange Prize event a woman asked me why I mutilated myself like that - she was referring to my tattoos.
At another literary event a person associated with the organisers told me to make the most of my ‘chance’ because ‘people
At an Orange Prize event a woman asked me why I mutilated myself like that - she was referring to my tattoos.
At another literary event a person associated with the organisers told me to make the most of my ‘chance’ because ‘people
like you only get one shot’.
An @guardian journalist asked me in a phone interview how it felt to be a person like myself nominated for a ‘proper literature prize’.
There were complaints from the attendees at Hay Festival about my tattooed, ‘rough’
An @guardian journalist asked me in a phone interview how it felt to be a person like myself nominated for a ‘proper literature prize’.
There were complaints from the attendees at Hay Festival about my tattooed, ‘rough’
appearance which they felt was out of keeping with the tenor of the event. This is me there. I hand embroidered my jeans. 
A Brighton Festival director said in a meeting they wouldn’t put me on because they had enough people like me on the streets never mind in their stage.
Cheltenham Literature Festival requested I not use ‘industrial language’ as they ‘had heard what I was
Cheltenham Literature Festival requested I not use ‘industrial language’ as they ‘had heard what I was
like’.
An @thetimes journalist said I was a disgrace to the English stage.
A popular female author of romances said I wrote about ‘the kennels of the poor as if I knew what they were like’.
Another Times journalist said I had ‘embraced the gutter’.
An @thetimes journalist said I was a disgrace to the English stage.
A popular female author of romances said I wrote about ‘the kennels of the poor as if I knew what they were like’.
Another Times journalist said I had ‘embraced the gutter’.
A festival director said if I didn’t have sex with him I’d never work his festival.
My publisher said to my face if they hadn’t gone with the stock photo of a biker’s fist on the cover of my novel Billie Morgan they would have sold ‘tons more’ but they’d
My publisher said to my face if they hadn’t gone with the stock photo of a biker’s fist on the cover of my novel Billie Morgan they would have sold ‘tons more’ but they’d
been ‘lazy’. That was the 2005 Orange prize novel.
The list of snobbery and discrimination is endless to be honest. But at no point did they actually criticise my writing. All of the above examples and far more can be applied to my poetry work. Now also, that I do not believe in Trans Ideology.
They don’t either but they know they won’t get grants etc unless they say they do. Why I’m posting this is partly in answer to the question and partly to show that Alternative, working class or GC writers are held in contempt by English literature.
They are obliged for ‘inclusion’ to publish a few but they will do their utmost to get you out. I had a good run at it because I write well was extremely driven, good at readings & determined. But eventually, even I tired. God help you if you aren’t that.
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