Teacher Kate Clanchy cancelled for SECOND time over poetry book

A former state school teacher has been cancelled for a second time after her publisher dropped her – a year after she was forced to rewrite her award-winning memoir amid claims it was racist.  

Pan Macmillan announced last week it would no longer work with critically-acclaimed author Kate Clanchy, 57, from Scotland, and would stop distributing her titles, including her poetry anthology England: Poems from a School.

Last year, Kate faced criticism for her 2019 memoir Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me for portraying some pupils in a ‘racist’ manner.

The book, which won the Orwell award, features passages with racial tropes such as ‘chocolate-coloured skin’ to describe a black child and one girl as having ‘almond eyes’. The text also describes two autistic children as ‘jarring company’. 

At the time, her former pupils have spoken out in support of her, with Shukria Rezaei identifying herself as the ‘girl with the almond eyes’ in The Times. She wrote: ‘Critics labelled [Kate’s] description patronising, insulting, offensive, colonialist and racist. This upset me..,I did not find it offensive.’ 

And yesterday the author published an essay on UnHerd under the headline ‘You can’t cancel poetry’, revealing: ‘The last copies of England: Poems from a School are piled up on my kitchen table along with heaps of all my other Picador books going back to 1996. Dozens of them — too many to store, but I felt I had to save them from pulping.’

Pan Macmillan announced last week it would no longer work with critically-acclaimed author Kate Clanchy, 57, from Scotland, and would stop distributing her titles (pictured, receiving her MBE)  

The author has been a teacher in state schools for more than 30 years.

The poetry anthology in question, England: Poems from a School, which was published in 2018, resulted in Kate being made an MBE for services in literature. 

Many of the young poets were from refugee backgrounds.

The book’s cover featured high praise from Philip Pulman who called it: ‘Great by any standard.’ 

Last year, Kate faced criticism for her 2019 memoir Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me for portraying some pupils in a ‘racist’ manner (left). She announced yesterday she has been forced to save her book England: Poems from a School from pulping (right) 

Writing on Upheard about the poetry book, she said: ‘It’s hard to believe that a little under four years later, its rights have been returned to me and its charities have repudiated it.’

She penned: ‘As it has become more relevant and exciting, literary criticism has also become more personal and shed some of its hefty academic conventions. 

‘Once, the word ‘trope’ indicated a system of language and imagery traceable through a whole, lengthy text — a semantic field or underlying narrative shape. 

‘Now the word has shrunk to mean a single metaphor or even word. Wide assertions may balance on very slender, tweet-sized proofs.’ 

The move from the publisher to cut ties with Kate comes after criticism from online commentators, who deemed some passages of her book were ‘racist’ and ‘ableist.’

Despite critics, her former pupils have spoken out in support of her, with Shukria Rezaei identifying herself as the ‘girl with the almond eyes’

This comes despite  judges for the Orwell Prize, which was awarded to her memoir, saying her book was ‘moving, funny and full of life’ and included ‘sparkling insights into modern British society’. 

The racial tropes were shared on Twitter and faced scrutiny from fellow authors, leading to Philip Pullman leaping to the book’s defence and describing it as ‘humane, warm, decent, generous and welcoming’.

Twitter users slammed Clanchy over the writing online, with one commenting: ‘This has horrified and triggered me. This book is full of racism and ableism. Privileged people always hail teachers like this, while disabled people & people of colour have their lives seriously damaged by them. 

‘Look at all the privileged jumping to her defence too!’ 

One wrote: ‘Just caught up on the racist tropes in Kate Clanchy’s writing. Read extracts, the kind of crude, blunt historical racism that lives on in white discourse.’  

Judges for the Orwell Prize, which was awarded to her memoir, said her book was ‘moving, funny and full of life’ and included ‘sparkling insights into modern British society’

Another commented: ‘My partner and I read the book. The grotesque and dehumanising way she described one of her students nearly triggered an anorexia relapse. It is full of ingrained racism, ableism, fatphobia and misogyny, and utter middle-class snobbery.’ 

Clanchy posted on Twitter last year and said she had been wrongfully accused of racism by users of book review website, Goodreads. 

Kate claimed some of the offending references were taken out of context but later apologised and said she would rewrite the book.

Clanchy said: ‘I’ve been given the chance to do some re-writing on Some Kids. 

Twitter users slammed Clanchy over the writing online, with some saying the book had ‘triggered’ them 

‘I’m grateful: I know I got many things wrong, and welcome the chance to write better, more lovingly.’

Her publisher, Picador, was accused of not going far enough in its initial statement on the row. 

It later issued two apologies and said it was discussing the best way to update future editions of the book.  

Picador said: ‘We realised our response was too slow. We vigorously condemn the despicable online bullying of many of those who have spoken out.

‘This has no place in our community.’

Meanwhile another pupil, Asima Qayyum, 23, who was at the time studying for a politics, economics and law degree, said Kate’s impact on her life was ‘unimaginably and overwhelmingly positive’ 

The student shared a lengthy statement on Twitter in which she stated Kate had ‘given the students platforms they never expected’

It said it apologised ‘profoundly for the hurt we have caused, the emotional anguish experienced by many of you who took the time to engage with the text, and to hold us to account.’

In a lengthy essay responding to criticism and published in The Times, her former pupil Shukria defended her teacher.

She wrote: ‘To be clear, I would not dream of commenting on whether other words and phrases Kate has used are offensive to others, but ‘almond eyes’ is a term that I have often used in my own poems.

‘My almond-shaped eyes are at the core of my Hazara identity. Hazaras are an almost invisible ethnic group in Afghanistan.’

She described how Kate had helped her feel at home in England and at school, saying she felt ‘privileged’ to have met her and ‘owed’ everything she achieved to her. 

Meanwhile another pupil, Asima Qayyum, 23, who was at the time studying for a politics, economics and law degree, tweeted: ‘@KateClanchy1 ‘s impact in my life has been unimaginably and overwhelmingly positive.

‘To see comments whereby it’s perceived as racist and manipulative is heart-breaking for me and so many of us students. 

‘With her emotional care, her teaching and guidance I am who I am today.’

She continued: ‘Kate gave us platforms we never expected. She fought for us to be in rooms and places we had never been welcomed in before and made sure people heard what we had to say.

‘I know first-hand how cruel and completely unacceptable racism is in any form, and from my experiences it’s not something I’ve ever associated with Kate. I just want people to know and hear from a student who has worked with Kate for almost ten years that my experience with her has impacted my life in so many positive ways it’s unimaginable.’

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