Posted on June 13, 2018 at 4:04 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Author Lionel Shriver is facing pushback from her comments about diversity in publishing.

Shriver published a column in the Spectator last week in response to a Penguin Random House email stating that it sought to reflect, in terms of employees and authors, the diversity of U.K. society by 2025.

Shriver criticized that and the accompanying questionnaire for authors, complaining that “from now until 2025, literary excellence will be secondary to ticking all those ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual preference and crap-education boxes.”

Her column prompted British literary magazine Mslexia to remove her from a writing-contest judging panel this week. 

Shriver denies being opposed to diversity and defended her comments, telling The Guardian: “The U.S. has had much more experience with affirmative action (positive discrimination) than the U.K., and the policy has had unfortunate consequences.”

Shriver’s novels include the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin (also a feature film) and the National Book Award finalist So Much for That.

Her journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

Catch up on the full story in the Los Angeles Times.

Categories: Today in Books

Comments
There are no comments yet.
Add Comment

* Indicates a required field