It’s 2pm in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I’m backstage in a school theatre. I’ve just completed one lively hour-long presentation to 200 sixth graders––they’ve been a terrific, enthusiastic audience as always––and I have 20 minutes until the next gig on the same stage. I love these events––promoting a bestselling series of books that I write […]

The following post is reproduced with the author’s permission. Her blog is both a repository of digital art, and a record of the ongoing saga of her cancellation by various arts institutions, and the continuing efforts to neutralise her voice. “I was ‘no-platformed’ in my hometown this week, because months ago and in a completely […]

The following diary entry is reproduced, with limited edits, with the author’s permission. “I don’t really expect the anonymous author/s of the Open Letter or the ‘TERFsOutOfArt’ Twitter account to meet me in the park tomorrow. I don’t really expect anyone to come, to be perfectly honest, though I will be there and will talk to […]

I am the sort of writer people haven’t heard of. There are lots of us. We may have the odd success. But mostly we publish in tiny magazines, obscure sites, small presses. Changes in the marketplace mean our writing may have got better but we earn less from it. We juggle unpaid writing and freelance […]

Below is my response to someone who posted an argument against JK Rowling’s essay on their Instagram story – a place where teens have been going lately to show solidarity. Thanks to my passion for this subject, something essay-like was accidentally born. I remain anonymous because my university does not accept any opinion which lies […]

It’s been a journey from sympathy to seeing exactly what is going on here and what is at stake. I am a writer and I have a tendency to really want to express myself with words, and have been writing to anyone and everyone who will listen, from my MP to Keir Starmer to the […]

The following letter was sent to the First Minister today, CC the Justice Committee which is gathering responses to the proposed Hate Crimes (Scotland) Bill. Dear Nicola Sturgeon, Thank you for your letter dated 19th April 2020. We write to you with two further questions, deriving from the Bill introduced days after your letter which […]

The following correspondence is published with the permission of the Booker Prize Foundation. It is a reply to our open letter calling for BPF to apologise to, and reinstate, Baroness Emma Nicholson who was stripped of her honorary title following a cancellation campaign lead by Damian Barr. Our statement in response to the BPF’s reply […]

Having reached 500 names, I have had to stop adding them manually, although many are still coming in via email. The way to add your name, from now on, is via the comments below. Thank you all for such warm support!   4 July 2020 Dear Gaby Wood and the Trustees of the Booker Prize, […]