Kate Clanchy - poet - is 'cancelled' by her publisher

[ArabellaScott]

Picador are unpublishing - ceasing to distribute - all of Clanchy's books. The article says 'by mutual consent', but it's not a good thing to hear a poet/author being 'cancelled'.

Literature/poetry is not in a healthy state right now.

unherd.com/thepost/picador-cancels-poet-kate-clanchys-books/

In case you missed the brouhaha - Article from last year:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58151144

I've been interested in the contrast in the way people in my corner of publishing/media twitter have responded to Kate Clanchy and Adam Kay, the author of This is Going to Hurt.

Most of my timeline have given themselves whiplash in their haste to distance themselves from Clanchy. However, they're all hailing the current TV series of This is Going to Hurt as a work of insightful genius. Kay's misogyny is apparently excusable because he's just showing how much pressure NHS doctors are under. 'He's not meant to come across as a hero, he's reflecting what it's like in an impossible job'. He has not been cancelled and his reputation has not, seemingly, been dented by the emergence of grossly offensive songs about Downs Syndrome and Northern women that he wrote a few years ago. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10506277/This-Going-Hurt-author-Adam-Kay-sang-vile-songs-Downs-syndrome-baby.html

I haven't read Kate Clanchy's book and I don't know her, so I'm not well qualified to comment, but from what I can gather she is also quite open about her own failings as a teacher, which is also a very challenging job. It makes me wonder what could possibly account for the difference in the way she and Adam Kay have been treated...?

Excellent point, @WinterTrees (and I would recommend reading her book, I found it honest and moving in places).

@everythingcrossed

I'm not sure how wise it is to refresh this thread, but Kate Clanchy has written about the process of submitting her work to sensitivity readers. I found it profoundly depressing.

They sullied my memoir to suit their agenda

Just more excuses from Clanchy. Can't she just own the fact that some of what she wrote was inappropriate?

Just more excuses from Clanchy. Can't she just own the fact that some of what she wrote was inappropriate?

JFC. She did own the fact - she even says in the article that she was looking forward to rewriting bits of it to redress that. But the comments from the sensitivity readers are ludicrous, contradictory and, quite frankly, offensively stupid.

I'm guessing you didn't actually read her article though, did you? Just leapt in with a snide comment.

It's giving me echoes of the Soviets forcing artists to submit work to bogus unions for ideological vetting before it could be disseminated to the public. And of course any work of art can fall foul of this dogma as one of its features is to constantly and arbitrarily change the rules of what is and isn't ideologically acceptable (because it's all about having the power to destroy someone rather than changing things for the better). The important thing to note is that now Clanchy has been condemned she has absolutely no way of redeeming herself in the eyes of the ideology. Whether she apologises, changes her work, defends herself or stays quiet, it is all taken as further proof of guilt.

I'm finding it interesting that most cancelled artists are seen as so inextricably linked with their work that it must be cancelled or destroyed but because the unicorn-frotting perma-teens cannot wean themselves off Harry Potter they've decided that JKR must be disappeared from her own work.

Bloody hell. Maybe I should apply to be a sensitivity reader. At least I know that e.e. cummings isn't a typing error.

I'm finding it interesting that most cancelled artists are seen as so inextricably linked with their work that it must be cancelled or destroyed but because the unicorn-frotting perma-teens cannot wean themselves off Harry Potter they've decided that JKR must be disappeared from her own work.

Discussion of the differing techniques between JKR and normal artists here:

New thread on this topic

www.mumsnet.com/talk/feminism/4622024-goodreads-secret-book-spite-and-kate-clanchy