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How trans activists in publishing hijacked a children's book competition to pursue a personal vendetta

212 replies

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 25/02/2022 04:51

The Phoenix Book Award is an initiative to encourage reading amongst children of the borough of Lambeth, London, launched in 2007. Back in 2017, it described itself as This exciting South London based Book Prize targets Year 5, 6, 7 and 8 pupils in Lambeth, encouraging them to read through the transition years. Phoenix is a unique book prize as students are involved in every stage of the award; from picking the shortlist, to shadowing the award and then finally voting for their favourite. It is open to all schools in the Lambeth area.

This year it's "judged by children from Years 6, 7 & 8 in Lambeth."

Children at participating schools read the books from a long-list (a very long list: as many as 32 books!) over a period of months, and whittle it down to from there. It sounds like an absolutely amazing concept for generating enthusiasm about reading.

Let's hear from the adults who do the paperwork for it:
After a break due to the pandemic we are delighted to announce that the Lambeth #PhoenixBookAward is returning for 2022!

This year, children were asked to nominate books that helped them get through lockdown. The result is a fantastic, diverse, and hugely competetive shortlist.

twitter.com/LambethPhoenix/status/1496789801718059011?s=20&t=F1f0NO5YFo712FQS40-3-w

Sounds lovely, right?

Yesterday, the twitter account for the prize posted the shortlist:

Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen
When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten
The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf

twitter.com/LambethPhoenix/status/1496791630476722184?s=20&t=aQmwjEpxiId-FatE21miAw

(Now another round of voting begins, and we'll know the winner on the 12th May 2022!)

This was accompanied by a little graphic showing the shortlist.

And that's where this wonderful heartwarming story of children enjoying reading went wrong.

One author's publishing agent took issue with the children of Lambeth having shortlisted another author with whom she disagreed, and decided to falsify that graphic to remove any record that Onjali Raúf and her book The Boy at the Back of the Class had been shortlisted by the children of Lambeth. Then she tweeted her false version from the business twitter of the literary agency she runs, for other people to unknowingly circulate.

You're probably wondering how we can know this. Well, we know, because she boasted about doing exactly that from her personal twitter account.

Transcript for those using a screenreader

Tweet 1 from Agent: Am I petty enough and procrastinating enough to amend a shortlist image to take out the shortlisted terf. Probably.

Tweet 2 from Agent: Turns out I am.

If you go here, you can read the incredible thread from Gillian Philip explaining this mess in more detail. Gillian's the one who explained events in the first place.

twitter.com/Gillian_Philip/status/1496907435830919172?s=20&t=aQmwjEpxiId-FatE21miAw

If you are struggling to view twitter threads without an account, go here. Graham Linehan has made a version of the thread that you can scroll through without a twitter account.
grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/there-will-always-be-women-who-hate?utm_source=url

Here are some other things you should know: Onjali Raúf founded an organisation that campaigns to end modern slavery and trafficking. makingherstory.org.uk/contact/

She also founded O's Refugee Aid Team which supports refugees in Calais; in fact, 50% of the royalties from that shortlisted book, The Boy at the Back of the Class go to their projects to support refugees! Yep, this is the same book that agent is trying to suppress positive publicity for.

www.osrefugeeaidteam.org/

This is a thread of some of the books Onjali Raúf has published: twitter.com/Dora_Callisto/status/1496988662806032386?s=20&t=aQmwjEpxiId-FatE21miAw which is where I found out that children are involved in the awards process.

At this point, I can only echo Dora's thread and ask, how do you think you'd feel if you were a child who'd nominated The Boy at the Back of the Class as one of the "books that helped [you] get through lockdown"? How would you feel to find out that another shortlisted nominee's agent had edited your nomination out?

It's despicable behaviour.

How trans activists in publishing hijacked a children's book competition to pursue a personal vendetta
How trans activists in publishing hijacked a children's book competition to pursue a personal vendetta
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Original poster
PurgatoryOfPotholes · 25/02/2022 20:00

As an agent, Alice makes an income from the booksales of the authors she represents, yes? Is that right?

It occurs to me to wonder if Alice S-H's passion for political purity would ever extend to refusing to take money from sales to families where the children also enjoyed any of Onjali Raúf's books.

I suspect not, don't you? She'll take their families' money, while falsifying the shortlist they voted on.

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FemaleAndLearning · 25/02/2022 19:34

@SilverCatStripes

So, yes: a privileged middle class white woman decided, quite deliberately, to erase a Muslim woman who works to end human trafficking and slavery

And she thinks she’s the good guy

This sums it up perfectly. Are people really that lacking in self-awareness??

I had never heard of Onjali Raúf until this Twitter spat, she looks like a very accomplished woman, working for very worthy causes, I will be ordering her book for my 2 DC.

This book is very good too. It's about domestic violence but from the child's viewpoint. It very well done.
How trans activists in publishing hijacked a children's book competition to pursue a personal vendetta
justaftb · 25/02/2022 19:30

What the?! She's a agent that specialises in books for children and she publicly declares she doesn't like children????

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 25/02/2022 19:12

They're attending state schools in Inner London, so can safely be ignored. Never mind that ASH's author comes from a not dissimilar background in Brum.

Original poster
PurgatoryOfPotholes · 25/02/2022 19:05

@LilithOfEden

She also wronged the children who chose Rauf's novel as a book, story and message that was dear to them.
That's the part of it I find the most poisonous.

The tweet explaining that the children chose books that helped them get through lockdown is immediately above the one with the graphic Alice S-H took and amended. I don't see how you'd miss it, especially when your job is promoting the authors you act for. Knowing what is special about any award seems key to the role.

And she's just censored the children's opinions?

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Ereshkigalangcleg · 25/02/2022 18:39

She's a peach.

CommunistLegoBloc · 25/02/2022 18:37

@LilithOfEden

She also wronged the children who chose Rauf's novel as a book, story and message that was dear to them.
Don't worry, she doesn't like children.

Baffling choice of job and baffling decision to declare it publicly but she's so thick that I'm not surprised.

How trans activists in publishing hijacked a children's book competition to pursue a personal vendetta
LilithOfEden · 25/02/2022 18:18

She also wronged the children who chose Rauf's novel as a book, story and message that was dear to them.

spacehardware · 25/02/2022 18:18

She's not expecting this to have any consequences for her. And tbh it probably won't - the people she relies on for her professional reputation will applaud her behaviour

thinkingaboutLangCleg · 25/02/2022 18:14

One author's publishing agent ... decided to falsify that graphic to remove any record that Onjali Raúf and her book The Boy at the Back of the Class had been shortlisted .... Then she tweeted her false version from the business twitter of the literary agency she runs, for other people to unknowingly circulate. ...[And] boasted about doing exactly that from her personal twitter account

This is what absolutely stuns me. She falsifies the shortlist and sends her faked shortlist round for others to circulate. And boasts about it.

So she has wronged the prize organisers, who will presumably ban her.
She has wronged the people she knowingly sent false information, who will not trust anything else they receive from her.
She deliberately wronged a Muslim woman who works for refugees, though she presumably doesn't care how bad that makes her look.

I'm not amazed by her viciousness, we see plenty of that on this subject every day.
I'm just amazed she has exposed herself to the consequences. No matter how little people care about anyone else, they don't want to look heartless, and anyone siding with her will look equally bad. What will she do for a living now that she's destroyed her reputation?

DdraigGoch · 25/02/2022 18:13

@spacehardware

JK Rowling is a "privileged white woman" but it's worth remembering the whole she's transphobic hoo haa really blew up when a load of disgusting TRAs tried to derail her Ikabog project, which was intended to be something nice / distracting for children to do, in lockdown in the middle of a pandemic.
She might be privileged now, but unlike Alice she wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth, instead JKR overcame considerable adversity.
MangyInseam · 25/02/2022 17:51

I think we are already there. Children's picture books in particular are terrible.

dopenguinsdance · 25/02/2022 17:37

All of the above, and does Alice S-H burn books as a matter of routine?#fahrenheit451

Tiphaine · 25/02/2022 17:30

Yes HenriettaTriceratops the similarity to Victorian literary moralising is obvious. These are adherents of an incredibly regressive ideology, though, so it's only to be expected.

HenriettaTriceratops · 25/02/2022 17:17

It would be a shame if we were to regress back to the Victorian moralising, ever-so-worthy children's books for fear of offending someone looking to be offended.

MrsWednesdayteatime · 25/02/2022 17:07

Didn't need a book, so donated to Betsy's swim fundraiser,

Original poster
PurgatoryOfPotholes · 25/02/2022 16:57

Frankly publishing should be about making good stories available, and while it's wonderful that publishes want to be careful not to ignore certain populations or voices, what's going on now is not about the stories, it's about fulfilling certain quotas.

And boy, doesn't it show in the output of the last couple of years. Stories with all the emotional depth and characterisation of a hastily-written Victorian sermon.

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Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 25/02/2022 16:41

Yes, there would be some head-scratching over who could identify as indigenous here. The Celts arrived around 500 BCE, I think - would you have to have DNA from a pre-Celtic source? Plenty of evidence mounting up now that during the Roman era there were people from all over the known world living in the British Isles, including people of colour.

MangyInseam · 25/02/2022 16:36

@RoyalCorgi

"We are actively seeking voices that have historically been underrepresented, particularly with tropes that are often said to be “over done”. For example, we are not interested in stories about white able bodied WW2 evacuees but would welcome that story from a disabled, LGBTQ+ or BIPOC perspective."

That is so stupid it's almost funny. I assume if this is about Britain, we're talking about Britain, where the term BIPOC is meaningless. And then the idea that children who are "white able bodied" are somehow not worthy of attention, when the vast majority of those children came from deeply under-privileged, impoverished backgrounds, and were wrenched away from their families to experience the loneliness and terror of staying with complete strangers for five years - well, that idea could only have come from an immensely privileged person who has never experienced anything like that.

I almost think it might be a good thing to use BIPOC in a place like the UK. Because it might make people think, just for a moment, what it really means to be indigenous, and maybe question their little oppression paradigms.

Frankly publishing should be about making good stories available, and while it's wonderful that publishes want to be careful not to ignore certain populations or voices, what's going on now is not about the stories, it's about fulfilling certain quotas.

It makes me think about the plagiarism of The Rosemary Tree, which was some years ago now.

Original poster
PurgatoryOfPotholes · 25/02/2022 15:40

Onjali Raúf has responded to all this with her characteristic class.

Tweet 1: Am currently overseas meeting awesome women changing lives, so wasn't online except for #UkraineWar news. But thank you fierce hearts @RooneyRachel @GillianPhilip @jessphillips @MForstater @ShonaghDillon @KIngalaSmith & all @MakeHerstory1 champions. Love trumps hate. We go on⚡

Tweet 2: PS. Thank you to all the awesome souls reading, buying, borrowing & sharing #TheBoyAtTheBackOfTheClass - especially at this time when so many lives are being upended so swiftly. (Or any of my book babies.) You make every second of what I do, an utter honour. #RefugeesWelcome

twitter.com/OnjaliRauf/status/1497103346309730304?t=fMOLp_hsxmmdyj-7Q46wJw&s=19

Tweet 3: PPS: In far worthier news, 8yo Betsy who took on a massive swimming challenge to raise money for @RefugeeAction after reading #TheBoyAtTheBackOfTheClass, has topped £3k & is in @theweekjunior!

Love our kids. They get Life's Priorities.⚡ #RefugeesWelcome
t.co/zk5zzYfezw t.co/OTvKdL4OAk

twitter.com/OnjaliRauf/status/1497112059116457984?t=m5A6_Ox5MR3_HO04KGV0UA&s=19

She links to Betsy's gofundme there.

How trans activists in publishing hijacked a children's book competition to pursue a personal vendetta
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Tanith · 25/02/2022 15:34

I'm not sure why this agent has used "procrastinating" when she actually means "unprofessional".

It's shocking that she has ruined her own reputation by openly gaming an award shortlist, though. How can she ever expect to be taken seriously again?

Original poster
PurgatoryOfPotholes · 25/02/2022 15:28

@LilithOfEden

I think there's a misconception that these are all first time authors. The book selection has been made by children of books that have meant something to them, as opposed to this being a prize for new literature. Onjali Rauf's nominated book is from 2018 (she's had at least 2 others published since then). Kereen Getten's nominated book is her first (2020), but she's had a second published (2021) and a third is being published this year. She's also been featured in a 2021 anthology. She's had a number of prizes/nominations/Times Book of the Week. So not exactly wet behind the ears.
Ah, thank you. I didn't realise Getten had been published again since that book!

According to one of the twitter threads covering the spite, Onjali Raúf has got at least five books out (I dunno if there are more that they didn't bother to list):

twitter.com/Dora_Callisto/status/1496988662806032386?t=oXYfCHJ5wzoENd3Ec5oirQ&s=19

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Original poster
PurgatoryOfPotholes · 25/02/2022 15:21

@cocoapopfan

Onjali Raif has been targeted before, when she was chosen for something by Booktrust. A bunch of children’s authors were openly boasting on twitter about how they were trying to get Booktrust to fire her.

There was also some kind of fall out because a children’s author who wasn’t even GC, but had congratulated Rauf or liked one of her tweets or similar was then hounded off twitter.

Horrible behaviour.

The victim there was Maz Evans. People (well, I say "people") sent her messages describing how they would rape her children.
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LilithOfEden · 25/02/2022 15:20

I think there's a misconception that these are all first time authors. The book selection has been made by children of books that have meant something to them, as opposed to this being a prize for new literature. Onjali Rauf's nominated book is from 2018 (she's had at least 2 others published since then). Kereen Getten's nominated book is her first (2020), but she's had a second published (2021) and a third is being published this year. She's also been featured in a 2021 anthology. She's had a number of prizes/nominations/Times Book of the Week. So not exactly wet behind the ears.

cocoapopfan · 25/02/2022 15:13

The trouble is I’d imagine many awards and events are run on very little, and the people doing them might well steer clear of someone like Onjali Rauf because they don’t want the hassle and controversy, or they’ll worry she has said something really bad. Which I guess keeps more of the award and promotional pie for the virtue-signalling bully brigade.

I think big organisations in the literary world and those with big platforms need to do something to stop this, but at the moment they seem to be supporting the bullies, if anything. Rachel Rooney wrote an account of how she left publishing because of similar bullying, but I imagine her detractors are probably still doing just fine.