The author of Babel and The Poppy War, Rebecca F Kuang, has said she finds the idea that authors should only write about characters of their own race "deeply frustrating and pretty illogical".
Roald Dahl's books are being edited to make them less offensive. Joke is, nothing has really changed. No matter how many tweaks are made to try and push classics like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into more politically correct territory, Dahl's books are still harmful. Read more
Publishing houses have set the cat among the pigeons. They have introduced "sensitivity readers". Some authors are claiming this amounts to censorship. But what is the truth of this relatively new practice? Read more
The idea of editing Shakespeare to eliminate doubles entrendres and naughty words to fit in with 19th-century social mores now seems preposterous, although presumably his publishers-Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown-thought it was a pretty good idea at the time. Read more
In the fallout following the news that Roald Dahl's books have been sanitised, there has been a puzzling discussion around the meaning of censorship. More than one commentator has stated that Puffin Books and the Roald Dahl Story Company (now owned by Netflix) are not censors because this was a business decision.
Handing down beloved books to your children is one of the best things about being a parent. And so like countless others raised on Willy Wonka's golden ticket and the BFG's jars of dreams, of course I was thrilled to relive the Roald Dahl books with my son all over again. Read more
Under book publishing's trending best practices, historical authenticity can be secondary to appeasing people's sensitivities. I'm qualified to say this based on my recent experience as a literary agent on behalf of a client.
Author Anthony Horowitz has said it's wrong "writers are running scared" due to a fear of offending, elaborating on comments he made earlier this year at Hay Festival.
‘I always quote Kurt Vonnegut. He said in the early part of his career he was dismissed as a science fiction writer and that critics tend to put genre books, including sci-fi, in the bottom drawer of their desk... It's true. I get the New York Times every Sunday. In 37 novels, I've never had a stand-alone review. I'm always in the crime round-up.
A survey of 787 members of the Society of Authors (SoA) has found that a third of translators and a quarter of illustrators have lost work to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. Translators are also more likely to use AI to support their work, with 37% of respondents saying they have done so, followed by 25% of non-fiction writers.
The author Lynne Reid Banks, known for her novel The L-Shaped Room and her children's book series The Indian in the Cupboard, has died at the age of 94.
I launched my podcast Making It Up nearly three years ago with the goal of interviewing writers not for any particular work of theirs, but to talk to them about their lives. I didn't want to ask them what famous author they want to have dinner with or what their top five favorite books are ... yech. Read more
Until we have a mechanism to test for artificial intelligence, writers need a tool to maintain trust in their work. So I decided to be completely open with my readers