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J.K. Rowling…… (This week in books)

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This week! Books!

As thousands of people around the world continued protesting injustice and brutality in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and at the start of Pride month, J.K. Rowling decided to double down with views on transgender people widely seen as transphobic, first in a series of tweets, then on a more extended personal post on her site where she connected her opinion on these matters to experiencing past abuse and, among other things that jumped out at me, expressed a fear of using a bathroom with trans women.

Let me be absolutely clear where I stand on this one: trans women are women, trans men are men, and non-binary people are non-binary. You don’t know someone’s gender better than they do. Love people for who they are and believe them when they tell you who they are.

My heart goes out to everyone distressed by the rhetoric this past week. Here are some resources for supporting trans authors during this time:

Feel free to add your favorite authors and resources in the comments!

People aren’t just marching for injustice in the streets, they’re going home and reading about it too. The New York Times bestseller list this week is almost totally dominated by books about race and antiracism.

If you’re looking to have conversations about what’s happening with your children, here’s a list of books to help you explain racism to kids.

In case you missed my post on #PublishingPaidMe on Monday, the NY Times had a good summary of the reactions to authors revealing their book advances.

The Internet Archive shuttered its so-called “Emergency Library” after four publishers sued them for mass copyright infringement

In writing advice news, here are six ways to incorporate a dash of a foreign language into your novel.

And in publishing advice news, Janet Reid talks about when to pull the plug on querying agents, Jane Friedman has a list of questions to ask your publisher before you sign the contract, and agent DongWon Song is launching a streaming show with Seth Fishman to help educate and train aspiring literary agents.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

  1. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
  2. The Guest List by Lucy Foley
  3. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
  4. The Lies That Bind by Emily Griffin
  5. Hideaway by Nora Roberts

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

  1. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
  2. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  3. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
  4. Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
  5. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Young adult hardcover:

  1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  2. Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  3. One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
  4. Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
  5. Star Wars: Queen’s Peril by E.K. Johnston

Middle grade hardcover:

  1. The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
  2. Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History by Vashti Harrison with Kwesi Johnson
  3. Little Leaders by Vashti Harrison
  4. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
  5. Wonder by R.J Palacio

This week on the blog

Don’t forget that you can nominate your first page and query for a free critique on the blog:

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

Comment! of! the! week! goes to Terin Miller with a rumination on the extent to which publishers over the years have long confused its role and why we should be skeptical whether things will now change:

My point is, for too long, it seems to me, the publishing industry in the US has gotten away with the fallacy that it is an imprimatur of “good” or even “great” writing, as opposed to just another business interested in making money off of a product it knows it can sell, or it pays booksellers to sell.

At one point, it appeared to be common knowledge among writers with good agents that, if the bookbuyer for Barnes & Noble only allowed an “elevator pitch” (seconds) of description, and passed in the meeting on carrying the book, the book would NEVER be a “best-seller.”

And where is B&N now?

That’s the reason, even now, I expect we are unlikely to see any kind of reassessment of publishing, any kind of fairness in either advances or even acceptance of books by non-white, non-“traditional” authors, until those in the industry realize that literary tastes, as well as societal tastes, change and broaden with experimentation, with taking a chance, risking a print run on an unknown writer, or even a previously unwritten story – and maybe one that doesn’t fall into or fit preconceived stereo-types of what it will be or, more to the point, who will buy it.

That’s why the ideal agent, or publisher, is the one willing to take a risk on a writer because of his/her/their writing, as opposed to how to “market” it or what “market” to pigeon-hole it into.

And finally, The New Yorker had a retrospective on the great painter Edward Hopper for this recent time of American solitude.

Have a safe weekend!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

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Art: Brooklyn protest. Photo by me.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Ekta Garg says

    Hi, Nathan. Like so many others, I’ve heard about and read about the conversation around J.K. Rowling’s tweets and comments. After I read your post above, I went to her site to see what she had to say. I read the long essay to which you refer, and I think, if you read the whole thing and take it within the context she presents it, you’ll see that she isn’t necessarily saying she’s “afraid of using a bathroom with trans women.” The issue, in the way she presents it, is a little more complicated than that.

    I’d love to know what you think (even if that means a private conversation, so we don’t set off any trolls.) Thanks, as always, for everything you do for the writing community. You’re awesome, and we love you!

    • Nathan Bransford says

      I don’t want to reprint her quote exactly, but in the paragraph that references bathrooms, I took it to mean that she believes letting trans women into women’s restrooms makes women in restrooms less safe? What am I missing?

      • Ekta Garg says

        As I understand it, she’s concerned about the Gender Recognition Certificate that people can now obtain (I wonder if that’s a thing only in the UK or if it’s everywhere) that basically allows them to declare themselves to be of another gender without any sort of surgery or hormones or counseling to guide them through the process. That might be fine for someone who feels like it truly applies to them, but I believe she’s expressing concern for wanting to maintain single-sex spaces (as she’s calling them) because she’s fearful that people who want to prey on others will use the certificate as a means to allow them to enter private areas. So, to put it in blunt, simplistic terms, a man who wants to prey on young women or those who identify as being women can just ask for the certificate and have a legal license to enter a women’s restroom or dressing room and do his worst.

        Her essay to me seemed to draw on her experience as a survivor of abuse. She says over and over that she believes trans women are women, but the larger narrative is about their safety and the safety of everyone else.

        • Nathan Bransford says

          I’m pretty confused, she doesn’t once say that trans women are women and in fact definitively rejects that notion? What am I missing?

          The notion that evildoers are going to rush into the opposing bathrooms at the faintest opportunity if anything changes belies both all available evidence as well as the fact that, as I’ve said elsewhere, signs outside of bathrooms are not magical talismans that stops evildoers in their tracks. People really think someone who wants to go into the wrong bathroom for untoward reasons are going to go through the trouble to get a permit declaring themselves transgender?

          We all go to the bathroom *currently* with people who could conceivably be attracted to us. Norms around who’s allowed to go into which bathrooms do not magically protect us all. I have never heard or seen anything that persuades me that bathroom fears are anything other than transphobia?

          • Faith says

            Personally, I think it’s a problem of word choice. Often sex and gender as used interchangeably.
            I think what she is saying is that trans women, are yes women, but they are not biological women. They live some experiences women live (sexism, harrasment, etc.) but they don’t live other experiences biological women live, i.e. periods, hysterectomy, etc. which doesn’t mean they’re less women than biological ones, just that there are differences.
            She is simply stating that biological sex is real. I don’t think she doesn’t think trans women, who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and who have gone through hormone therapy and surgery to be, as much as they possibly can, women aren’t women. I think what she is saying is that a man can’t simply say “I’m a woman” and be considered as one.

          • Nathan Bransford says

            She is literally saying they’re not women. That was the whole basis of the tweets that started this whole thing. That’s what’s her post is about. She does not anywhere say “yes they’re women, let’s recognize that there’s a spectrum of experiences of womanhood,” she is making a very, very long case that they are not women.

          • Ekta Garg says

            After re-reading her post many times, I can see why everyone’s so upset. I also think she’s prioritizing safety over everything else to the detriment of people’s opinions of her. While I do think people should have the right to express themselves, I also think she has a responsibility as a public figure to consider what she’s going to say before she says it. That’s not to say she should censor herself, but Rowling has to know that people are going to come out in droves to disagree with her and even vilify her. Her post, while complimentary of the trans community in many spots, muddies the whole issue of what exactly she’s trying to say instead of clarifying it.

            Makes me even more aware going forward how I should conduct myself online and to remember at all times that people are listening. If I’m ever published widely, a LOT of people will be listening.

            More than anything, Nathan, I deeply appreciate you giving your fans this forum where we can talk thoughtfully and respectfully with one another about all this. It’s refreshing to be able to disagree or even agree with one another and it be done in a (mostly) civilized manner. So thank you!

  3. C says

    This is quite an imbalanced take on the JK Rowling story. Whether or not you agree with her (I agree with some things she said, I disagree with others), I think it is remiss not to acknowledge the torrent of vile and misogynistic abuse she has faced in response. Your blog only focuses on half of the story which is really unfair.

    Today, the British Sun newspaper quoted her first husband on its front page “I Slapped JK and I’m Not Sorry” (in reference to her allegations of domestic abuse). You don’t have to be gender-critical and/or transophobic to recognise that misogyny has played a major part of this whole episode – and you have totally ignored it.

    • Nathan Bransford says

      Thanks, and I think you’re right that even if I disagree with her I could have summarized the post better. I’ve updated my post accordingly.

      I also agree with you about that article ugh.

  4. Faith says

    I don’t agree with what JK Rowling said. I think Trans womend are women, and Trans men are men. However, I think she has the right to have her own opinion. The amount of hate, threats she received is wrong in my opinion.
    Trans people don’t need her to be validated. Yes, I get that having a person with a huge platform spreading wrong stereotypes is upsetting. Do we really want to live in a world where we bully and threat people to agree with us?
    Since it’s an important and delicate issue, I think it would be better to have a peaceful discussion about it, and in the end even if she doesn’t change her mind, it’s her right.

  5. Angela Brown says

    I can’t help wondering if the onset of COVID-19 – its handling of various leaders aside – and many of our needs to self-isolate played as a catalyst to spur what seems to be a series of reckonings for things that have been weeks, years, decades, and centuries in the making.
    For all that is happening:
    – Re-evaluation of human compassion in the face of COVID-19
    – Heavily armed #ReopenTheEconomy protests filled with angry protesters screaming but rarely screamed back at, more like certain leaders understanding their pain for needing to get a haircut, that special burger made and eaten right at the restaurant, and the choice to catch a highly contagious disease that may not kill them but kill quickly get them access to their inheritance from the grandparents
    – Fist-raised, unarmed #BlackLivesMatter protests filled with angry protesters screaming and being screamed at, batoned, pushed, shoved, tear gassed, rubber bullet shot at, referred to as thugs for the looting and burning despite this nation’s blue-blood veins roiling high in the name of patriotism with looting and burning as one of its founding actions
    – JK Rowling speaking on something it sounds like she doesn’t have full awareness of when it comes to trans-rights though her personal PTSD from past abuse appears to be clouding things…
    I hope that true, productive change is accomplished, and that this world is the better for us taking an honest look at treating each other as worthwhile human beings.
    I girl can hope 🙂

  7. Nick says

    Thank you for standing up for trans women. She Who Must Not Be Named is a TERF (trans exclusive radical feminist), without question; You-Know-Who has made that perfectly clear in a number of statements and tweets over the past few months. Other examples of her transphobia date back more than two years. Those here who’ve attempted to dilute and/or excuse her transphobia are likely coming from a place of cis privilege and so, like whites who push the “All Lives Matter” mantra, are sadly tone-deaf. I’ll quote from this recent Vox article, written by a non-binary author, to offer a ‘woke’ take on SWSNBN’s ‘TERFism’:

    “Rowling’s comment deeply hurt many of her millions of fans — including me. More importantly, it perpetuated the type of pernicious hate and misinformation that leads to trans women, especially teens and black trans women, becoming victims of sexual assault, violence, and hate crimes at an appallingly frequent rate.

    … on Wednesday, Rowling attempted to explain her stance on trans identity with a long essay full of harmful transphobic stereotypes. It was a profoundly hurtful piece of writing, riddled with hand-wringing, groundless arguments about villainous trans women, outdated science, and exclusionary viewpoints. Especially gutting was the essay’s self-centeredness; Rowling masked obvious transphobia as a personal appeal to reason, rooted in her own experience as a woman and an abuse survivor. She asked for empathy and respect for her experiences while showing none for her targets.

    But even before she published it, to me at least, the damage had already been done.”

    https://www.vox.com/culture/21285396/jk-rowling-transphobic-backlash-harry-potter

  8. norman says

    Quick question:
    How does Rowling (or any other non-trans female) verify that the trans female is not a hetero male perp in disguise? My wife would like to know.

    • Nathan Bransford says

      It always comes down to bathroom fears, doesn’t it? Does anyone honestly think the signs outside of bathrooms confer magical protection or that someone who wants to do harm is going to go through the trouble of putting on a “disguise?” Do you think everyone who enters a women’s bathroom is wearing a dress or something in the first place?

      There are no statistics or evidence to back up that opening up bathrooms to everyone causes any harm or increased danger, it’s just transphobia.

      • norman says

        Agreed. A sign on a bathroom door certainly does not confer “magical protection”. What it does is confer a social code. Right now, if a woman sees a man in a women’s washroom, she can use a number of emphatic entreaties and responses to advise him of his trespass. Ditto for a man observing a man entering a women’s washroom. Consequently, the level of safety is sustained rather than being reduced. Personally, if I were a woman, I would choose the social equivalent of “shoot first and ask questions later” and respond with a healthy spritz of bear spray rather than assume that any and every male I saw in the women’s washroom was a harmless trans. And there are no statistics or evidence that demonstrate that opening up bathrooms to all promotes transphobia.

        • Nathan Bransford says

          Do you honestly go around policing bathrooms and chasing people you assume to be of the wrong gender out? Have either of you literally ever encountered this situation in your entire life? How would you even have any confidence you were correct? Based on appearance alone? Do you insist on a genital check?

          You honestly sound like more of a danger than the people harmlessly trying to use a bathroom that corresponds to their own gender if you’re going to go spraying bear spray at the slightest hint of gender confusion. I’d rather chase you out of my bathroom!

  9. Francois Tremblay says

    Thank you for making your misogyny clear. I will stop following your blog.