Interestingly, I can see and agree with both Kenny & Len's points -- that's not a lame attempt middle-of-the-roadedness, but an assessment of how complex and current the issue is.

Yes, of course, on WW at least, there should be (and to my mind, is) a place in the writing world where you are literally invisible and your work can stand on its own to be judged without reference to race, age, gender, etc.

But, also -- yes, of course to deny that race is still a very real factor is the very real world is ostrich-like behaviour, and for WW forums to ignore the realities of publishing would be unfortunate.

Personally, I think this is the perfect forum for this, for these things are publishing realities. Both sides of the issue -- the desire for more visibility and true acceptance of individual experience + the wish for a bias-free literary world where craft and art are all that matter -- are valid topics of discussion, no matter how uncomfortable it is for some or even many of us, because it is more uncomfortable reality for the writer who has to wonder if literary survival and acceptance means censoring visceral life experiences.

I borrow a quote here from Kellie Hogue -- "Simply put, we cannot even begin to solve racism without addressing the nefarious ambiguity of it."

Just my tuppence,

Smith

<Added>

And as a language-related, hopefully humorous side note : I went to the WW section for "Black poetry" the other day expecting, because of where my head was at, I'd find literary decendants of Langston Hughes and topics ala Zephania... only to quickly readjust upon finding descendents of Bauhaus and The Cure .... Oh, how I laughed and laughed at me, I did! -- Lesson to self: one's assumptions and expectations are forever being challenged.

Both points are valid. I feel this comes down to publishers wanting ‘Bestsellers’ from the go. Each new book has to be a potential Bestseller. If Pulishers can sell a book to a mass audience, they’ll buy it. Agents know this and act accordingly. Publishing is becoming like Hollywood where the most important colour - GREEN.
For unpublished writers this effects all of us.

- I have to add that I also believe if you write a good story, one that people enjoy, you will be published.
Dawn,x (Forever the optimist.)


<Added>

- Pulishers? what's that. I blame keyboard.

Hello,
I can't understand why on earth racism in publishing shouldn't be discussed on a getting published forum.

Amnesia

Hi Kenny,

I've just noticed in the News section of WW that Courtia Newland is speaking this Friday in Harrow. I remember reading about him when he published his first novel, The Scholar, and he sounded pretty far from being either white or middle class. Maybe an exception to the publishing rule, but he got there all the same.

Al.



<Added>

Oops, that should have been 'Courttia'

<Added>

Btw, if you put him in Google, there's lots of info. Why not go and meet him and ask how he did it?

Hi Al

Yes I saw the piece in the news section and I was thinking of making my way down South Harrow Police Station! on Friday to see listen to his talk and reading. I think I will do a search in google as I have never heard of him or his work.

Cheers
Kenny

As far as I can see, he's young, gifted and black and has written about his experiences of life on a London council estate. I'm sure he has some interesting tales to tell.

Enjoy!

As far as the poetry world goes, I suppose the title of KennyP's original post could well have included "and male."

I just read the following in Neil Astley's introduction to [u]The Bloodaxe Poems of the Year 2003[/u] collection -- sobering:

"When I founded Bloodaxe 25 years ago.... I wanted to overturn Adrian Mitchell's dictum that Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people, having realised that there were many different kinds of poetry being written which didn't ignore people, but that much of it wasn't being published. Publishers weren't serving readers. Even now there's still a mismatch between publication and readership: over three-quarters of poetry collections published by the main imprints are by men, despite the fact that poetry's readership is over two-thirds female, and numberous women poets are either unpublished or only available in small press editions not found in bookshops. And the published women poets received far less review coverage than the men."