Kate Clanchy’s memoir, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, which is about the author’s teaching experience in UK state schools, has faced criticism on Twitter and Goodreads for its descriptions of minority ethnic children and autistic children, among other issues. But the book isn’t a new release. Published in 2019, the book won the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and received positive reviews. For critics, this merely underlined the deep, structural racism at play in the British publishing industry and literary establishment—that no agent, editor, or reviewer seemed to notice the racial stereotyping. Clanchy describes students as “so Afghan” or as having an “African voice” or a “Jewish nose.” She calls one person an “African Jonathan.”
Clanchy was in fact the first to draw public attention to the criticisms by taking a screenshot of a Goodreads review and posting it on Twitter, arguing that she did not use the terms she was accused of. But later Clanchy had to admit that she did. One critic, Beth Bhargava, analyzed the disconnect: “I do not believe that Clanchy’s initial criticism of her book’s Goodreads reviews was disingenuous. I think she genuinely failed to recognise her own words quoted back at her. … [Her reasoning was she] had good intentions, she did not believe herself to be racist, therefore she cannot have written a racist book.”
What has made the situation far worse: critics of the book have been harassed on social media, and even author Philip Pullman—president of the UK’s Society of Authors—suggested that Clanchy’s critics might “find a comfortable home in Isis or the Taliban.” (He has since apologized.) Picador did not apologize in its first, brief statement on the matter; it released a second and third statement to express greater responsibility and contrition. Clanchy is working on a rewrite.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
