This is a recurring issue at too many festivals... vet your moderators. This places too much stress (to say the least) on the poc & queer panelists (also why wasn’t someone qpoc moderating this panel!?) https://twitter.com/nekuthebooklock/status/1254227203971309568

And I saw QPOC bc when you have queer and poc people, you can’t have someone white queer moderating... at the very the they need to be poc so they can get get it

I am particularly bothered because I had a client involved in this mess and because they in no way should have to speak up about this let me just explain it further...

for so many poc authors to get invited to a festival is a privilege and the more exclusive the festival the more poc often have to be like the buzziest of debuts or bestsellers and award winners. That is quite often not the same for white counterparts.

Why was Myracle even thought of to moderate this panel? I cannot fathom why anyone thought she was an active ally enough for such an honor because that’s what it is (especially given what the landscape for poc & queer books looked like just a few years ago/how far we have to go)

And so maybe you can imagine how it feels... so you speak up and risk being labeled “angry” and not get invited again to what your publisher has told you is such a great opportunity or do you stay silent & bear the shit you have to deal w daily on a panel you were asked to be on

I’m so tired of this happening again and again and I wish it were the first time I’ve heard of something like this but it’s the so many time I can’t even count (particularly and issue for yallfest/west imo given how white their queer panels have been some years / lack of poc)

also it’s unfortunate because the panel was fantastic the panelists are fantastic she just shouldn’t have been there to say what she said and set that tone