Looks like Joanne Harris is facing a vote

[Imnobody4]

Joanne Harris is facing a vote by Society of Authors members on whether she should stand down as chair alongside demands for a review of how the organisation protects free speech.

Read here: t.co/rxchlOKHku t.co/FaeROzAVoG
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Pleased to hear it. I hope members are able to vote without being bullied for their views.

Haven’t registered to read but it would be brilliant if they did take a firm line on defending free speech.

I've been genuinely shocked at how appallingly Harris behaves. Hope she's voted out.

Same. Belligerent and so unprofessional. I think I'd be cringing even if she and I were on the same 'side'.

Great, she’s a disgrace and should have resigned.

Is JKR a member?

She has loads of supporters spreading the idea that this is all about a few “anti-trans” meanies trying to bully her out. There are huge numbers of authors who are fully captured and haven’t stopped to think through why feminists and gay people might have reasonable concerns about GI. So although I think she has demonstrably behaved really badly and doesn’t fulfil her role of representing authors fairly and equally at all, she could well survive the vote.

Here's an archived copy: archive.ph/cY1Tn

The woman is a nightmare. Good.

I believe it's called "accountability" for picking and choosing which free speech you want to support? Time she grew up to be a principled adult and accepted the rights of women to speak about facts, science and women's rights even if she's not keen on feminism.

especially mean and nasty stuff from J Harris, selling out her own authors for an extreme ideology. Authors eh? Thoughtful, cerebral types who cant even work out why saying you re a woman doesn't make you one!

I've been in despair seeing authors on twitter falling over themselves to swear allegiance to Harris and her pious disciples. So much 'transphobes must not win!' type messaging, from people who are supposed to have insight and understand nuance. Profoundly depressing.

Still, it's the same silver lining as with the Joules debacle. There are more books out there than I can possibly read, so it's useful to know which ones I don't need to bother with, on account of their authors having such a basic grasp of critical thinking, social history and psychology.

From what I have seen a lot of authors are falling inline with the trans rhetoric because quite a few of the major publishers are refusing/stopping printing anything that isn't pro-trans.

This is something that the Society of Authors should be complaining about not supporting.

Disappointed by the number of people saying this is a transphobic hate crime against JH. Will be interesting to see how the vote goes.

It will be interesting to see how the vote goes. I'm not sure publishing is as unanimous on the topic as it might seem from Twitter; there are many vocal junior publishers displaying their pronouns at every given opportunity, but far more people noticeably not saying anything at all. Mainly because they're more worried about other grown up stuff, like mortgages, and redundancies.

LizTrussed is correct. If you look closely at the literary/publishing scene you will notice many, many authors and others not using pronouns, not joining in, not saying anything. That careful silence has increased over the past few years.

Working in the arts is a precarious occupation at best. I really admire those who are able and willing to speak up. Most can't and won't. (See, for example, a new 'code of conduct' for the Scottish Book Trust, which evokes vague threats about 'bigotry' without defining it, and without agreement to which authors can't work with them.)

Currently, yes there's a silo filled with loud voices that convinces some that ranting about TWAW and trying to 'cancel' wrongthinking people is the Right Side - by which they mean the Safe Side.

But the silent majority are increasing all the time, and the gap between the shouting of True Believers in genderism and the Silent Refusers is becoming increasingly hard to ignore.

I believe the SoA may have had something to do with drafting the Scottish Book Trust's Code of Conduct, btw, which seems to directly contradict their advice on signing 'morality clauses' - but I've not had time to read up on it in detail yet.

I'm a writer and the atmosphere among writers is very, very chilling.

I know a lot of people aren't saying anything, but they are part of the problem, because the ones who do speak up are being hung out to dry.

A lot of writers aren't saying anything, because they think they "don't know enough" or have no right to speak on it because they're the "wrong" demographic.

Others are keeping quiet because they're terrified of losing already precarious careers. But by keeping quiet they are part of the problem.

If you're a writer, bloody well speak up! What do you think the point of being a writer is?

This is the SBT's code of conduct: www.scottishbooktrust.com/about/policies/code-of-conduct

I'm not sure which bits people are concerned about, but it all looks very dodgy to me. Here's what they say about misconduct:

While this Code of Conduct sets out expected standards of behaviour, it also seeks to convey not just what people do, but how they do it, while representing or supported by Scottish Book Trust. These standards emphasise the need to be respectful and professional at all times. If it is clear that an event organizer, author or affiliate has not been respectful or professional, this is misconduct.

One of Harris's supporters has made a really horrible accusation against JKR. Lots of people said it was a lie and she should delete her tweet unless she could provide the evidence.

She doubled down before protecting her tweets and presume is still going. JKR has asked her to retract and apologise. She is refusing.

Who was it Clymene? Do you have a link? (Wondering if it's anyone I know. Sadly I do know quite a few prominent TRAs who are writers.)

I have a screenshot @beastlyslumber

Thanks Clymene. I'm feeling like JK is going to need to start taking people to court. I'm sure she doesn't want to, but if people are going to libel her and not back down then what choice does she have? It's about time some of these arseholes realised who they're trying to mess with.

I would definitely send Laura a letter from my lawyer if I were her. This relentless smearing must be doing her head in.

There's quite a long thread on JKR's own Twitter feed, calmly unrolling the situation, complete with 'commentary' from those who do not share her world view.

Laura doesn't seem to understand what the words retraction and apology mean. Which is a bit worrying, considering she's a writer.